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A Boat Load Of Home Folk
''A Boat Load of Home Folk'' (1968) is a novel by Australian author Thea Astley. Plot summary The novel follows a group of passengers on a cruise ship docked at a Pacific Island as a hurricane approaches. Critical reception In ''The Canberra Times'' Liam Mason noted that the reader was able to sympathise with the novel's characters: "There is also an almost depressing realism in Miss Astley's resolutions of her characters' crises: the failure of a friend, the failure of a marriage, the failure of a priest, the failure (at the most trivial level) of a womaniser in a would-be seduction. For there is not necessarily any solution. Nor need there be a new start after the ritual of death and disaster." Michael Wilding, writing in ''Southerly'' found a lot to like about the book, but also had some reservations: "The precision of the writing, the spareness and clarity, are immediately appealing. But as the novel progresses the lack of any substantial content lets the writing drift ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thea Astley
Thea Beatrice May Astley (25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary. Astley has a significant place in Australian letters as she was "the only woman novelist of her generation to have won early success and published consistently throughout the 1960s and 1970s, when the literary world was heavily male-dominated"."Introduction" in Sheridan, Susan and Genomi, Paul (eds) (2008) ''Thea Astley's Fictional Worlds'', Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing Life Born in Brisbane and educated at All Hallows' School, Astley studied arts at the University of Queensland then trained to become a teacher. After marrying Jack Gregson in 1948, she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angus And Robertson
Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: Angus & Robertson, 1888–1945". In: ''The History of the Book in Australia 1891–1945''. (Edited by Martyn Lyons & John Arnold), pp. 27–36. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. This well known Australian brand currently exists as an online shop owned by online bookseller Booktopia. The Angus & Robertson imprint is still seen in books published by HarperCollins, a News Corporation company. Bookselling history The first bookstore was opened in 110½ Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Mackenzie Angus (1855-1901) in 1884; it initially sold only secondhand books. In 1886, he went into partnership with fellow Scot George Robertson. This George Robertson should not be confused with his older contemporary, George Robertson th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Slow Natives
''The Slow Natives'' (1965) is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Thea Astley. It won the Miles Franklin Award in 1965, the second of her record number of four wins. Plot summary Set in sub-tropical Queensland, the novel examines the relationships between suburban Brisbanites including a priest, nuns and a couple and their teenage son. Style and themes The novel represents a departure for Astley from her earlier novels in that rather than focusing on one or two particular characters, she moves "freely among a group, switching attention omnisciently from one to another. Almost all the characters suffer from some form of spiritual aridity; in Astley's vision, there often seems nothing between repression, and empty or even corrupt sexuality". Astley's characters in this novel often only realise their failings after disaster has beset them. The father, for example, only realises after his teenage son has lost his leg in a "joy-riding accident", that he has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Acolyte (novel)
''The Acolyte'' is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Thea Astley first published in 1972. Plot summary The novel is told in the first person by “the acolyte,” Paul Vesper. The novel traces the career of a fictional Australian musician and composer named Jack Holberg. Beginning in obscurity as a piano player in Grogbusters, a dreary little Queensland town, the blind Holberg eventually gains international recognition as a composer. Vesper, who had met Holberg during his less renowned period, gives up an engineering career to serve the great man—in a sense, to become his eyes. Notes In an interview noted in ''The Canberra Times'', Astley stated that she wrote the book partly in answer to Patrick White's ''The Vivisector''. ""Why write only about the great, changing Christ figures?" she asked a Sydney journalist. "Why not write about the other people who share their lives?"" Critical reception After the novel had been republished in the US in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1968 In Australian Literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1968. Major publications Books * Thea Astley – '' A Boat Load of Home Folk'' * Kenneth Cook – ''The Wine of God's Anger'' * Frank Dalby Davison – ''The White Thorntree'' * Geoffrey Dutton – ''Andy'' * David Ireland – ''The Chantic Bird'' * Thomas Keneally – ''Three Cheers for the Paraclete'' * Norman Lindsay – ''Rooms and Houses'' * John O'Grady – ''Gone Troppo'' * F. J. Thwaites – '' Sky Full of Thunder'' * Morris West – ''The Tower of Babel'' Short stories * Louise Elizabeth Rorabacher – ''Aliens in Their Land : The Aborigine in the Australian Short Story'' (edited) * Patrick White – "Five-Twenty" * Michael Wilding – "Joe's Absence" Science fiction and fantasy * John Baxter – ''The Pacific Book of Australian Science Fiction'' (edited) * A. Bertram Chandler – ''Spartan Planet'' (aka ''False Fatherland'') Children's and Young Adult fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels By Thea Astley
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1968 Australian Novels
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * January 10 – John Gorton is sworn in as 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearance of Harold Holt. Gorton becomes the only Senator to become Prime Minister, though he immediately transfers to the House of Representatives through the 1968 Higgins by-election in Holt's vacant seat. * January 15 – The 1968 Belice earthquake in Sicily kills 380 and injures around 1,000. * January 21 ** Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins, ending on April 8. ** 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash: A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs. * January 23 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
