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The Well-Dressed Explorer
George Brewster, an Australian journalist, travels from city to city and mistress to mistress convinced of his own wisdom
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
90 people want to read
About the author
Thea Astley
35 books45 followersThea Astley was one of Australia's most respected and acclaimed novelists. Born in Brisbane in 1925, Astley studied arts at the University of Queensland. She held a position as Fellow in Australian Literature at Macquarie University until 1980, when she retired to write full time. In 1989 she was granted an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Queensland.
She won the Miles Franklin Award four times - in 1962 for The Well Dressed Explorer, in 1965 for The Slow Natives, in 1972 for The Acolyte and in 2000 for Drylands. In 1989 she was award the Patrick White Award. Other awards include 1975 The Age Book of the Year Award for A Kindness Cup, the 1980 James Cook Foundation of Australian Literature Studies Award for Hunting the Wild Pineapple, the 1986 ALS Gold Medal for Beachmasters, the 1988 Steele Rudd Award for It's Raining in Mango, the 1990 NSW Premier's Prize for Reaching Tin River, and the 1996 Age Book of the Year Award and the FAW Australian Unity Award for The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow.
Praise for Thea Astley:
'Beyond all the satire, the wit, the occasional cruelty, and the constant compassion, the unfailing attribute of Astley's work is panache' Australian Book Review
She won the Miles Franklin Award four times - in 1962 for The Well Dressed Explorer, in 1965 for The Slow Natives, in 1972 for The Acolyte and in 2000 for Drylands. In 1989 she was award the Patrick White Award. Other awards include 1975 The Age Book of the Year Award for A Kindness Cup, the 1980 James Cook Foundation of Australian Literature Studies Award for Hunting the Wild Pineapple, the 1986 ALS Gold Medal for Beachmasters, the 1988 Steele Rudd Award for It's Raining in Mango, the 1990 NSW Premier's Prize for Reaching Tin River, and the 1996 Age Book of the Year Award and the FAW Australian Unity Award for The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow.
Praise for Thea Astley:
'Beyond all the satire, the wit, the occasional cruelty, and the constant compassion, the unfailing attribute of Astley's work is panache' Australian Book Review
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 21, 2020
Queensland author Thea Astley’s The Well Dressed Explorer has been an interesting read after coming off a well-respected French classic. As I wrote in my review of that “The premise consisted of a lot I would like” but in the end I found the writing so ponderous that it distracted from the story. Thea’s novel, on the other hand, consisted of a premise that if explained to me with little to no knowledge of the ability of the writer I would have dismissed out of hand as just a mere melodrama.
In truth it is much more than that, it is a very good and worthy winner of the 1962 Miles Franklin award that tells the life story of one George Brewster who from the beginning to the very end of his trite life has little to offer other than his hackneyed turns of phrase, vapid observations and his pettiness and self-pity. In his life he surrounded himself with those that fell into this banal world with utter ease, be that his priest, his wife, the many women folk met along the way and even his work colleagues.
As with the previous novels I have read by Thea I can do nothing more than praise her extraordinary ability to write a turn of phrase that has one cringing for the protagonists who come under the cutting satire of her acidic pen. Her observational skills of, I presume, her own middle class world was remarkably good. In truth the dull lives of a comfortable Australia consisting of the faux who spoke a pretentious language that was not part of the vernacular of the vast majority of the people of those times is bitterly exposed and it takes a very good writer to make the uninspiring individual seem a little bit colourful. With that it is hard to imagine a book such as this getting much traction nowadays and I suspect that Thea Astley will be little read into the future. With that this is recommended to those with an interest in Australian Literature from the past. They should enjoy it.
In truth it is much more than that, it is a very good and worthy winner of the 1962 Miles Franklin award that tells the life story of one George Brewster who from the beginning to the very end of his trite life has little to offer other than his hackneyed turns of phrase, vapid observations and his pettiness and self-pity. In his life he surrounded himself with those that fell into this banal world with utter ease, be that his priest, his wife, the many women folk met along the way and even his work colleagues.
As with the previous novels I have read by Thea I can do nothing more than praise her extraordinary ability to write a turn of phrase that has one cringing for the protagonists who come under the cutting satire of her acidic pen. Her observational skills of, I presume, her own middle class world was remarkably good. In truth the dull lives of a comfortable Australia consisting of the faux who spoke a pretentious language that was not part of the vernacular of the vast majority of the people of those times is bitterly exposed and it takes a very good writer to make the uninspiring individual seem a little bit colourful. With that it is hard to imagine a book such as this getting much traction nowadays and I suspect that Thea Astley will be little read into the future. With that this is recommended to those with an interest in Australian Literature from the past. They should enjoy it.
October 28, 2023
Only two writers have ever won the (leading Australian) Miles Franklin Literary Award four times: Tim Winton and Thea Astley. I know Winton’s work well but not Astley’s. That’s why I read this book but oh, what a disappointment! The story seems pretty pointless and is about the life of journalist George Brewster, who appears to be a right little shit. That’s not the reason I gave up this book barely a hundred pages in, though, it’s the way it is written! The style reads like an ill-advised affectation to me and is deeply annoying. The meaning of entire passages often remains unclear because of overly dense syntax and oddly chosen, exotic vocabulary, e.g.: “…at the wide lonely country road down which within that thought the long apple-pale beams of the car scissored the night…” It is tempting to pass on to the author a bit of advice the editor of a country newspaper gave to George Brewster before he left for the big smoke (Sydney): “Stick to simplicity in your writing. You tend to be ornate.” I’m not keen to find out if Astley’s later books are more readable, this one was first published in 1962.
December 29, 2023
4.5 stars. A very entertaining, humorous novel about George Brewster, a womaniser. George is a journalist and his career takes him from city to city. He has a teenage romance with Nita that he continues into his 20s. Surprisingly Nita marries someone else! A year or so later George marries Alice, a bridesmaid at Nita’s wedding.
George and Alice have a daughter, Jeannie. George continues to have affairs whilst married to Alice. George is a very gregarious man who parties, drinks and is not short of a word.
I particularly enjoyed the dialogue between George and his lady friends. Whilst he picks beautiful women to date, they are also quite strong and put down George on many occasions. George, to his credit, takes it. George is a catholic and goes to confession on many occasions!
George is an unlikeable character to begin with. As George ages, he changes and you begin to gain a better understanding of George.
I have read a number of Thea Astley’s novels and have found each to be very good character based books.
This book won the 1962 Miles Franklin Award. Astley has won four Miles Franklin awards. The other Miles Franklin Award winners are: The Slow Natives (1965), The Acolyte (1972) and Drylands (2000).
George and Alice have a daughter, Jeannie. George continues to have affairs whilst married to Alice. George is a very gregarious man who parties, drinks and is not short of a word.
I particularly enjoyed the dialogue between George and his lady friends. Whilst he picks beautiful women to date, they are also quite strong and put down George on many occasions. George, to his credit, takes it. George is a catholic and goes to confession on many occasions!
George is an unlikeable character to begin with. As George ages, he changes and you begin to gain a better understanding of George.
I have read a number of Thea Astley’s novels and have found each to be very good character based books.
This book won the 1962 Miles Franklin Award. Astley has won four Miles Franklin awards. The other Miles Franklin Award winners are: The Slow Natives (1965), The Acolyte (1972) and Drylands (2000).
November 9, 2020
Goddamn Thea. You could write. Along with Stead, my favourite Aussie Queen.
February 24, 2015
As you will know if you have viewed the Opening Lines or my more recent Sensational Snippet, there is much to love about Thea Astley’s The Well-dressed Explorer which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1962 along with George Turner’s The Cupboard Under the Stairs. Thea Astley has the distinction not only of being a four-time winner of the Miles Franklin but also the only two-time co-winner i.e. when the award was shared between two authors. Astley won it twice in her own right, with The Slow Natives in 1965; and The Acolyte in 1972, see my review; and she was a co-winner for Drylands along with Kim Scott’s Benang (see my review) in 2000). Astley (1925-2004) is one of Australia’s great writers, notable not only for the numerous literary awards she won, but also for a powerful body of work over a sustained literary career of more than 40 years.
Remarkably, she achieved this with a distinctive modernist style. The extensive use of complex metaphor can be taxing sometimes, but is offset by her wit; her passion for exposing petty corruption, injustice and human stupidity; and her brilliant observations of people at their most banal. All these are superbly in evidence in her third novel The Well-dressed Explorer, but if you don’t like to have your brain circuits stretched by imagery used in new and challenging ways; if you’re put off by lush poetic descriptions or if you just like a what-happened-next kind of a story, then Thea Astley may not be for you. But for me, reading The Well-dressed Explorer makes me want to read her first two: I have A Descant for Gossips (1960) on the TBR but not her debut novel Girl with a Monkey (1958). Hopefully it will turn up in the OpShop one of these days... it is nice to have other titles to look forward to…
The Well-dressed Explorer of the title is George Brewster, a narcissistic journalist whose career takes him exploring jobs, colleagues and women. Like an explorer, he goes seeking the new, leaving nothing much behind him except a trail that briefly shows where he’s been
To read the rest of my review (and access the various links on my blog) please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/02/25/th...
Remarkably, she achieved this with a distinctive modernist style. The extensive use of complex metaphor can be taxing sometimes, but is offset by her wit; her passion for exposing petty corruption, injustice and human stupidity; and her brilliant observations of people at their most banal. All these are superbly in evidence in her third novel The Well-dressed Explorer, but if you don’t like to have your brain circuits stretched by imagery used in new and challenging ways; if you’re put off by lush poetic descriptions or if you just like a what-happened-next kind of a story, then Thea Astley may not be for you. But for me, reading The Well-dressed Explorer makes me want to read her first two: I have A Descant for Gossips (1960) on the TBR but not her debut novel Girl with a Monkey (1958). Hopefully it will turn up in the OpShop one of these days... it is nice to have other titles to look forward to…
The Well-dressed Explorer of the title is George Brewster, a narcissistic journalist whose career takes him exploring jobs, colleagues and women. Like an explorer, he goes seeking the new, leaving nothing much behind him except a trail that briefly shows where he’s been
To read the rest of my review (and access the various links on my blog) please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/02/25/th...
March 6, 2017
Review:
This book was Thea Astley's 'first big break' and was awarded the prestigious Australian literature Miles Franklin Prize 1962.
Astley's own 15 year marriage began to drift and entered a cold spell.
She watched while other friend's marriages fell apart.
With her characters of George and Alice....Astley contemplates the myth of fidelity in marriage.
Is discretion really secrecy?
Our explorer George crisis-crosses the female landscape with Alice accepting his indiscretions.
Conclusion:
Not only a satire about a very selfish philandering man but a
scarifying portrait of a couple's marriage (..like Thea and her husband Jack).
Long marriage is about more than years.
Buried within it is the accumulated understanding
...of the unsaid that keeps people together.
#MustRead....coup de coeur!
This book was Thea Astley's 'first big break' and was awarded the prestigious Australian literature Miles Franklin Prize 1962.
Astley's own 15 year marriage began to drift and entered a cold spell.
She watched while other friend's marriages fell apart.
With her characters of George and Alice....Astley contemplates the myth of fidelity in marriage.
Is discretion really secrecy?
Our explorer George crisis-crosses the female landscape with Alice accepting his indiscretions.
Conclusion:
Not only a satire about a very selfish philandering man but a
scarifying portrait of a couple's marriage (..like Thea and her husband Jack).
Long marriage is about more than years.
Buried within it is the accumulated understanding
...of the unsaid that keeps people together.
#MustRead....coup de coeur!
December 16, 2023
Thea Astley (1925 - 2004) is an Australian national treasure - one of only two authors, the only woman, to win 4 Miles Franklin Awards between 1962 and 2000. Tim Winton is the other one.
The Well Dressed Explorer (1962) won Astley her first MF Award. It is a novel that, 60 years on, has stood the test of time and remains as relevant and insightful as was when it was first published, especially in relation to its key themes. It is an enduring novel.
I am empathetic to to view that Astley's prose in this novel may be unnecessarily dense, overly complex, occasionally bordering on the purple with it preponderance of simile and metaphor. There certainly were sentences that I had to read more than once to fully appreciate the message conveyed by the convoluted syntax.
But the fault is easily forgivable and can be readily overlooked. For the most part, the prose is inventive, original, colorful and dripping with nuanced meaning. The words and phrases have been selected with care and clear intent.
The anti hero of the story is George Brewster. Although the setting is Sydney in the late 1950s, George Brewsters remain abundant and easily recognizable today.
George became a journalist, a competent if not brilliant one, who worked in a series of mostly unfulfilling jobs with a moderate level of success.
George was also a compulsive charmer, a woo-er of women, an unfaithful husband, a solid drinker, a seeker of carnal pleasure. George was not a misogynist - he loved women, including his wife, too much for that. But he was a rampant chauvinist - in keeping with the prevailing attitudes of the times, he believed that women occupied a place of subservience to men. They existed for his pleasure and should be grateful for his lustful attentions.
As one woman said to George's daughter Jeannie, " He's a selfish old bastard, but he's not malicious. The truth is he never takes time off thinking about himself in order to be malicious. Malice does imply giving thought to another and Georgie isn't capable of that."
And yet, despite him getting fatter and less attractive as he aged, George managed to find plenty eager to succumb to his charms and his apparent bedroom skills. He managed to keep his bell-end moist on a regular basis with a range of women, married or not, in addition to his passive and long-suffering wife Alice, whom he called Lissie.
I was a little surprised by the apparent promiscuity of women in this post-war period. I acknowledge that men have always been seekers of illicit sex, but I had assumed that the women of that generation were more disposed to keeping their ankles firmly together. The Pill and drugs changed all that in the 1960s.
In George and Alice, and the supporting cast of lovers, workmates and social acquaintances, Astley has created a lively, colorful and credible set of characters for this novel. She has captured the attitudes of workplaces and social gatherings of the time, and it's apparent that, when one delves beneath the surface, little has really changed in the past 60 years. There is an abiding familiarity to this yarn despite the passing of two generations.
While I didn't love The Well Dressed Explorer quite as much as her 2000 MF winner, Drylands (an Australian classic in my opinion), there was plenty to love about this early work by icon Thea Astley. I rate this one at 4.5 stars, and Drylands a convincing 5.
I look forward to reading her other MF winners, The Slow Natives (1965) and The Acolyte (1972) in due course. Astely is one of the best writers this country has produced to date.
The Well Dressed Explorer (1962) won Astley her first MF Award. It is a novel that, 60 years on, has stood the test of time and remains as relevant and insightful as was when it was first published, especially in relation to its key themes. It is an enduring novel.
I am empathetic to to view that Astley's prose in this novel may be unnecessarily dense, overly complex, occasionally bordering on the purple with it preponderance of simile and metaphor. There certainly were sentences that I had to read more than once to fully appreciate the message conveyed by the convoluted syntax.
But the fault is easily forgivable and can be readily overlooked. For the most part, the prose is inventive, original, colorful and dripping with nuanced meaning. The words and phrases have been selected with care and clear intent.
The anti hero of the story is George Brewster. Although the setting is Sydney in the late 1950s, George Brewsters remain abundant and easily recognizable today.
George became a journalist, a competent if not brilliant one, who worked in a series of mostly unfulfilling jobs with a moderate level of success.
George was also a compulsive charmer, a woo-er of women, an unfaithful husband, a solid drinker, a seeker of carnal pleasure. George was not a misogynist - he loved women, including his wife, too much for that. But he was a rampant chauvinist - in keeping with the prevailing attitudes of the times, he believed that women occupied a place of subservience to men. They existed for his pleasure and should be grateful for his lustful attentions.
As one woman said to George's daughter Jeannie, " He's a selfish old bastard, but he's not malicious. The truth is he never takes time off thinking about himself in order to be malicious. Malice does imply giving thought to another and Georgie isn't capable of that."
And yet, despite him getting fatter and less attractive as he aged, George managed to find plenty eager to succumb to his charms and his apparent bedroom skills. He managed to keep his bell-end moist on a regular basis with a range of women, married or not, in addition to his passive and long-suffering wife Alice, whom he called Lissie.
I was a little surprised by the apparent promiscuity of women in this post-war period. I acknowledge that men have always been seekers of illicit sex, but I had assumed that the women of that generation were more disposed to keeping their ankles firmly together. The Pill and drugs changed all that in the 1960s.
In George and Alice, and the supporting cast of lovers, workmates and social acquaintances, Astley has created a lively, colorful and credible set of characters for this novel. She has captured the attitudes of workplaces and social gatherings of the time, and it's apparent that, when one delves beneath the surface, little has really changed in the past 60 years. There is an abiding familiarity to this yarn despite the passing of two generations.
While I didn't love The Well Dressed Explorer quite as much as her 2000 MF winner, Drylands (an Australian classic in my opinion), there was plenty to love about this early work by icon Thea Astley. I rate this one at 4.5 stars, and Drylands a convincing 5.
I look forward to reading her other MF winners, The Slow Natives (1965) and The Acolyte (1972) in due course. Astely is one of the best writers this country has produced to date.
March 15, 2024
What I particularly like is the way Astley creates these vividly observed scenes based around gentle details of people and setting, and into all that then puts our character somewhat loose and distant from the scene. And this positioning creates empathy for the character and appreciation for the scene construction. Not your run of the mill writer, gifted observations.
Here the story tracks a man in his life. Where tawdry Aussie novels make meal from the great business success or affairs or a lost childhood love and the story becomes a tedious focus on scandal or drama, Astley fits this within an observation on motion in our lives, and perhaps an unfulfilled yearning. The protagonist is unpleasant and less compelling then her others, but still such good reading.
Here the story tracks a man in his life. Where tawdry Aussie novels make meal from the great business success or affairs or a lost childhood love and the story becomes a tedious focus on scandal or drama, Astley fits this within an observation on motion in our lives, and perhaps an unfulfilled yearning. The protagonist is unpleasant and less compelling then her others, but still such good reading.
December 30, 2024
Thea Astley reads like a delicious crossover between Patrick White and Flannery O'Connor or something. I feel the time is ripe for a rediscovery of her style and characterisation which feel anachronistic yet seem to hit quite close to home. Who else could mix Paris, Paddington and Petrie Terrace into one yarn and carry the project off with such flair?
"The brain in splints was limping home to a last haven."
"The brain in splints was limping home to a last haven."
June 21, 2022
A dry and intelligent depiction of life in Australian cities in the mid twentieth century. Astley leans toward satire in her depiction of George, the central character, but it's a satire underscored with compassion. This book won the Miles Franklin in 1962 and it's easy to see why. The writing is rich; it's not a page-turner but a book to read slowly and enjoy.
December 22, 2019
I’m sure there have been times where I might have enjoyed Thea Astley’s writing more. However this felt terribly overwritten. The language and prose is incredibly dense and I found it overcame me.
June 28, 2023
How men perceive and fool themselves
August 23, 2023
....review is written well after completed reading. The main character was to say the least "painful". Satirical in 1962....but probably would not get a start in 2023
July 18, 2017
I've been meaning to read some Thea Astley for many years - as a multiple winner of the Miles Franklin Award, she's one of Australia's best known female novelists of the Twentieth Century. The well dressed explorer won the Miles Franklin in 1962, the first of four for Astley.
This book has left me perplexed. When I was half-way through it, I thought it was a pile of overwrought re-hashed garbage. After turning the last page, I'm less certain what it is, although confused might apply to the book as much as it does to me.
The narrative is quite simple - we meet George Brewster first as an adolescent, who falls madly in love with Nita, a girl who visits his Queensland town over summer holidays. This teenage crush in many ways rules the rest of his life. Nita turns out to be a bit of a "goer", and while she spends lots of time with George, he is not the only one to garner her favours. She eventually marries another boy, and heartbroken, George leaves for Sydney to continue a journalistic career.
On a trip back to Queensland, he meets and marries Nita's best friend Alice. The story follows George in his career and various affairs as he blunders through life, totally self-centred but essentially meaning well. He has attacks of religiosity (usually after being unfaithful) and often vows to reform, but never really does. As he ages he moves from being the young up-and-coming man to a boozy self-important bore.
The story ends with George's death from a heart attack.
It is a fairly thin narrative in and of itself - a vehicle for a message that is constantly thrust down the reader's throat by Astley in a fairly unsubtle manner - that George is self-centred and vain, and by being that he hurts the people around him in what he does and doesn't do.
George is represented as a man less in touch with himself than he could be, immersed in the blokey world of journalism. The women (apart from Alice) are presented as smart, sassy and knowing what they want.
Given the storyline and characterisations, I find Astley's choice of language during the novel quite bizarre - much of the description is in a style one can only call baroque, and annoyingly lacking in adjectives. An example - "O stupidity of bounding heart! Under blue flare of the wall lights expectant sheen in Nita's eyes pulverized him with lightning flash." This kind of writing in a book about a louche journalist in Australia in the thirties just doesn't fit, and comes across as strained and deliberately artsy. It's the language for a different book to this, and is distracting for the reader. It is not the sort of language any of the characters would use, and is out of place here.
Ashley's characterization of George does show insight into a certain type of man. Her descriptions of him in his latter phases show a man unwilling to accept his aging, and how pathetic that can be in others' eyes. Astley finds the need to spell that out for the reader rather than letting them find it themselves. I'm guessing that, as this is an earlier novel, Astley was still developing the craft to enable her to let the characters tell the story, rather than her telling us what we should think or feel. This book strikes me as one in which the writer has not yet discovered within themselves the style in which they can express their own voice. It's part pastiche, part rehash, but there is something there for a patient reader.
While The well dressed explorer has some good points, I suggest this is not the place to start with Astley, and she remains unfinished business for me. 1962 must have been a thin year for the Miles Franklin Award.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
This book has left me perplexed. When I was half-way through it, I thought it was a pile of overwrought re-hashed garbage. After turning the last page, I'm less certain what it is, although confused might apply to the book as much as it does to me.
The narrative is quite simple - we meet George Brewster first as an adolescent, who falls madly in love with Nita, a girl who visits his Queensland town over summer holidays. This teenage crush in many ways rules the rest of his life. Nita turns out to be a bit of a "goer", and while she spends lots of time with George, he is not the only one to garner her favours. She eventually marries another boy, and heartbroken, George leaves for Sydney to continue a journalistic career.
On a trip back to Queensland, he meets and marries Nita's best friend Alice. The story follows George in his career and various affairs as he blunders through life, totally self-centred but essentially meaning well. He has attacks of religiosity (usually after being unfaithful) and often vows to reform, but never really does. As he ages he moves from being the young up-and-coming man to a boozy self-important bore.
The story ends with George's death from a heart attack.
It is a fairly thin narrative in and of itself - a vehicle for a message that is constantly thrust down the reader's throat by Astley in a fairly unsubtle manner - that George is self-centred and vain, and by being that he hurts the people around him in what he does and doesn't do.
George is represented as a man less in touch with himself than he could be, immersed in the blokey world of journalism. The women (apart from Alice) are presented as smart, sassy and knowing what they want.
Given the storyline and characterisations, I find Astley's choice of language during the novel quite bizarre - much of the description is in a style one can only call baroque, and annoyingly lacking in adjectives. An example - "O stupidity of bounding heart! Under blue flare of the wall lights expectant sheen in Nita's eyes pulverized him with lightning flash." This kind of writing in a book about a louche journalist in Australia in the thirties just doesn't fit, and comes across as strained and deliberately artsy. It's the language for a different book to this, and is distracting for the reader. It is not the sort of language any of the characters would use, and is out of place here.
Ashley's characterization of George does show insight into a certain type of man. Her descriptions of him in his latter phases show a man unwilling to accept his aging, and how pathetic that can be in others' eyes. Astley finds the need to spell that out for the reader rather than letting them find it themselves. I'm guessing that, as this is an earlier novel, Astley was still developing the craft to enable her to let the characters tell the story, rather than her telling us what we should think or feel. This book strikes me as one in which the writer has not yet discovered within themselves the style in which they can express their own voice. It's part pastiche, part rehash, but there is something there for a patient reader.
While The well dressed explorer has some good points, I suggest this is not the place to start with Astley, and she remains unfinished business for me. 1962 must have been a thin year for the Miles Franklin Award.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2013
Mixed views on this one. Enjoyed her writing style, however found the plot a bit lame. It was intriguing enough to keep me reading and I got what she was trying to do with the character George, however wasnt exactly a rivoting read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews