''The Acolyte'' is a

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

-winning novel by Australian author

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 ...

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 ''The Vivisector'' is the eighth published novel by Patrick White. First published in 1970, it details the lifelong creative journey of fictional artist/painter Hurtle Duffield. Named for its sometimes cruel analysis of Duffield and the major figu ...

''. ""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 1988 ''Kirkus Reviews'' wasn't overly impressed: "In ''The Acolyte'' (1972), a failed engineer and two German sisters devote themselves, body and soul, to the whims of an egotistical blind composer. The author uses great care in dissecting the minutest variations in their orgies of self-sacrifice, but she neglects to show what it is that draws them to destruction. All three are willing doormats from the start. As a result, there is a good deal of truth in Astley's observations but very little interest. Nor are matters helped any by an ostentatiously prickly style." Writing in an overview of Astley's work in 2010 Megha Trivedi stated: "The novel carries human element of love, the frustration of Paul Vesper and his brutal reaction against the selfishness of Holberg. ''The Acolyte'' highlights the never ending personal, spiritual and artistic desires of human beings.""Thea Astley: Writing in Overpoweringly a Male Dominated Literary World" by Megha Trivedi, ''IRWLE'', Vol6 No. II, July 2010
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Publishing history

After its original publication by

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: A ...

in 1972,the novel was published as follows: *

University of Queensland Press Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house. Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...

1980, Australia *

G. P. Putnam's Sons G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and J ...

1988, USA (as a part of ''Two by Astley: A Kindness Cup and the Acolyte'') *

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.University of Queensland Press Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house. Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...

1998, Australia * Untapped 2021, Australia

References

External links

Middlemiss.org
Novels by Thea Astley 1972 Australian novels Miles Franklin Award-winning works Angus & Robertson books {{1970s-novel-stub