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Such is Life
I purpose taking certain entries from my diary, and amplifying these to the minutest detail of occurrence or conversation. This will afford to the observant reader a fair picture of life, as that engaging problem has presented itself to me.
There is nothing else in literature like Joseph Furphy's comic masterpiece. First published in 1903, it is the story of Tom Collins - Deputy-Assistant-Sub-Inspector of the New South Wales Civil Service, ninth class - and his travels among the rough bullock drivers, squatters and itinerants of the Riverina. A philosophical portrayal of Australian bush life told in 'somewhat discursive style', Such Is Life is hilarious, confounding and inexhaustibly wise.
There is nothing else in literature like Joseph Furphy's comic masterpiece. First published in 1903, it is the story of Tom Collins - Deputy-Assistant-Sub-Inspector of the New South Wales Civil Service, ninth class - and his travels among the rough bullock drivers, squatters and itinerants of the Riverina. A philosophical portrayal of Australian bush life told in 'somewhat discursive style', Such Is Life is hilarious, confounding and inexhaustibly wise.
431 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1903
24 people are currently reading
440 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Furphy
34 books2 followersBorn to a farming family in colonial Victoria, Joseph Furphy spent his working life as a grazier, engine driver, and bullock-team leader. An avid reader and writer (he memorised passages of Shakespeare from the age of seven, as it was the only book in the house other than the Bible), Furphy composed short stories which were intermittently published in newspapers such as The Bulletin. Much of his work was published under the pseudonym "Tom Collins", and he is still sometimes misidentified as such today.
In 1897, Furphy completed his manuscript for a novel, "Such is Life", which was sent to the Bulletin's editor, A.G. Stephens. Stephens recommended changes and cuts, including two entire chapters. The novel was published in 1903 and, although its sales were limited, "Such is Life" quickly came to exemplify a new school of Australian literature, one that operated in resistance to the standard colonial and traditional writing of the time. The book has been described as occupying a similar place in the Australian scene of the turn-of-the-century as "Tristram Shandy" or "Ulysses" in their respective countries.
In 1905, Furphy moved to Western Australia where his sons were living and working. The two excised chapters from his novel were extended and formed two further works: "Rigby's Romance" (serialised in 1905 but not published in book form until 1921), and "The Buln-Buln and the Brolga" (published posthumously). Furphy died in 1912.
"Such is Life" gradually developed a reputation as an Australian classic. Miles Franklin and Kate Baker published a biography of Furphy in 1944, and the author's Western Australian home eventualyl became the headquarters of the state branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. In 1992, a Furphy Literary Award was established by his descendants and, in 2003, a statue was raised in his home town.
The Australian word "furphy" is used to mean a tall story. Although such stories pepper his works, and are the most obvious trait of Furphy's writing, the word seems to have been somewhat coincidental. Research suggest that the word originated around the same time as a result of a popular type of water carts - which were produced by a firm owned by, of all people, Furphy's brother.
In 1897, Furphy completed his manuscript for a novel, "Such is Life", which was sent to the Bulletin's editor, A.G. Stephens. Stephens recommended changes and cuts, including two entire chapters. The novel was published in 1903 and, although its sales were limited, "Such is Life" quickly came to exemplify a new school of Australian literature, one that operated in resistance to the standard colonial and traditional writing of the time. The book has been described as occupying a similar place in the Australian scene of the turn-of-the-century as "Tristram Shandy" or "Ulysses" in their respective countries.
In 1905, Furphy moved to Western Australia where his sons were living and working. The two excised chapters from his novel were extended and formed two further works: "Rigby's Romance" (serialised in 1905 but not published in book form until 1921), and "The Buln-Buln and the Brolga" (published posthumously). Furphy died in 1912.
"Such is Life" gradually developed a reputation as an Australian classic. Miles Franklin and Kate Baker published a biography of Furphy in 1944, and the author's Western Australian home eventualyl became the headquarters of the state branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers. In 1992, a Furphy Literary Award was established by his descendants and, in 2003, a statue was raised in his home town.
The Australian word "furphy" is used to mean a tall story. Although such stories pepper his works, and are the most obvious trait of Furphy's writing, the word seems to have been somewhat coincidental. Research suggest that the word originated around the same time as a result of a popular type of water carts - which were produced by a firm owned by, of all people, Furphy's brother.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 26, 2020
Waltzing Round the Riverina with Cleopatra
They say there's an old, red continent down below those tropic isles where white rice is a constant. Once upon a time it was inhabited by squatters, drovers, swagmen, bushrangers, tank builders, boundary riders, and a host of other characters. Together, their lives formed a pattern that was later woven into the Great Australian Legend---the legend of the bush and mateship. If you ever wanted to read the details of such, to know something of that outback life beyond the towns on the coast where most Australians lived then and now, this is your book. Full of dry, Aussie humor and endless Victorian-style philosophizing in most circuitous language, SUCH IS LIFE contains a number of episodes said to have occurred to the author in 1883 in the area just north of the Murray River (Australia's longest), the country known as the "Riverina". Numerous classical allusions may leave modern readers (like me) scratching their heads and as the author loves to write in dialect, the various English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, Chinese, and Aboriginal accents can grow perplexing as well as tiring. Nevertheless, SUCH IS LIFE presents a fresh, never-stale look at conditions in society in a land that has changed so much in the 130 years since. Just as gold was often found in nuggets down in the Victorian towns of Ballarat and Bendigo, so you will find many gold nuggets of humor and pleasure throughout this book. "Cleopatra" is the name of a male horse that always tried to buck the author off, but would quiet down after failing. Similarly, the book might "buck you off" at first, but I recommend that you persist. You'll be glad.
"Tom Collins" is a pseudonym most likely for Joseph Furphy, whose family made the water containers which brought H20 to the front lines in WWI and with them various rumors, so much so that "furphy" became slang for "rumor". .
They say there's an old, red continent down below those tropic isles where white rice is a constant. Once upon a time it was inhabited by squatters, drovers, swagmen, bushrangers, tank builders, boundary riders, and a host of other characters. Together, their lives formed a pattern that was later woven into the Great Australian Legend---the legend of the bush and mateship. If you ever wanted to read the details of such, to know something of that outback life beyond the towns on the coast where most Australians lived then and now, this is your book. Full of dry, Aussie humor and endless Victorian-style philosophizing in most circuitous language, SUCH IS LIFE contains a number of episodes said to have occurred to the author in 1883 in the area just north of the Murray River (Australia's longest), the country known as the "Riverina". Numerous classical allusions may leave modern readers (like me) scratching their heads and as the author loves to write in dialect, the various English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, Chinese, and Aboriginal accents can grow perplexing as well as tiring. Nevertheless, SUCH IS LIFE presents a fresh, never-stale look at conditions in society in a land that has changed so much in the 130 years since. Just as gold was often found in nuggets down in the Victorian towns of Ballarat and Bendigo, so you will find many gold nuggets of humor and pleasure throughout this book. "Cleopatra" is the name of a male horse that always tried to buck the author off, but would quiet down after failing. Similarly, the book might "buck you off" at first, but I recommend that you persist. You'll be glad.
"Tom Collins" is a pseudonym most likely for Joseph Furphy, whose family made the water containers which brought H20 to the front lines in WWI and with them various rumors, so much so that "furphy" became slang for "rumor". .
April 19, 2024
opening with the sentence "Unemployed at last!", this is an underread and seemingly barely talked about australian book in the best tradition of laurence sterne and all those unclassifiable menippean satires. purports to be extracts from the diary of one tom collins, a deputy-assistant-sub-inspector ninth class of the new south wales civil service who appears to do very little other than hang out with bullock drivers and wander around the outback. there are digressions into philosophy, religion and shakespeare, near incomprehensible dialect written so true to life that at times it starts to resemble finnegans wake, and attacks on the over convenient plotting of novelists as opposed to the 'facts' recounted by collins. really a hidden gem for all fans of digressive shandean books.
July 1, 2019
Not as well-known as it deserves to be, this rambling masterpiece remains a foundation stone of Australian literature. The title is said to be Ned Kelly’s last words on the gallows, and its opening line is the exultation: “Unemployed at last!” How Australian is that?!
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October 8, 2021 Waltzing Round the Riverina with Cleopatra
They say there's an old, red continent down below those tropic isles where white rice is a constant. Once upon a time it was inhabited by squatters, drovers, swagmen, bushrangers, tank builders, boundary riders, and a host of other characters. Together, their lives formed a pattern that was later woven into the Great Australian Legend---the legend of the bush and mateship. If you ever wanted to read the details of such, to know something of that outback life beyond the towns on the coast where most Australians lived then and now, this is your book. Full of dry, Aussie humor and endless Victorian-style philosophizing in most circuitous language, SUCH IS LIFE contains a number of episodes said to have occurred to the author in 1883 in the area just north of the Murray River (Australia's longest), the country known as the "Riverina". Numerous classical allusions may leave modern readers (like me) scratching their heads and as the author loves to write in dialect, the various English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, Chinese, and Aboriginal accents can grow perplexing as well as tiring. Nevertheless, SUCH IS LIFE presents a fresh, never-stale look at conditions in society in a land that has changed so much in the 130 years since. Just as gold was often found in nuggets down in the Victorian towns of Ballarat and Bendigo, so you will find many gold nuggets of humor and pleasure throughout this book. "Cleopatra" is the name of a male horse that always tried to buck the author off, but would quiet down after failing. Similarly, the book might "buck you off" at first, but I recommend that you persist. You'll be glad.
They say there's an old, red continent down below those tropic isles where white rice is a constant. Once upon a time it was inhabited by squatters, drovers, swagmen, bushrangers, tank builders, boundary riders, and a host of other characters. Together, their lives formed a pattern that was later woven into the Great Australian Legend---the legend of the bush and mateship. If you ever wanted to read the details of such, to know something of that outback life beyond the towns on the coast where most Australians lived then and now, this is your book. Full of dry, Aussie humor and endless Victorian-style philosophizing in most circuitous language, SUCH IS LIFE contains a number of episodes said to have occurred to the author in 1883 in the area just north of the Murray River (Australia's longest), the country known as the "Riverina". Numerous classical allusions may leave modern readers (like me) scratching their heads and as the author loves to write in dialect, the various English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, Chinese, and Aboriginal accents can grow perplexing as well as tiring. Nevertheless, SUCH IS LIFE presents a fresh, never-stale look at conditions in society in a land that has changed so much in the 130 years since. Just as gold was often found in nuggets down in the Victorian towns of Ballarat and Bendigo, so you will find many gold nuggets of humor and pleasure throughout this book. "Cleopatra" is the name of a male horse that always tried to buck the author off, but would quiet down after failing. Similarly, the book might "buck you off" at first, but I recommend that you persist. You'll be glad.
February 6, 2014
Can a comic novel be tiresome at times? Yes. Such is life.
August 24, 2014
it was a while back. I read it because it is labelled as an Australian classic, managed about two thirds of it but in the end was dreading getting up to read it, just not enough to grab me. Did not finish. And this is saying something, because I don't let many books beat me. After all, I read all of The Satanic Verses when many around me couldn't finish that. This, no, just couldn't muster up the will for the last third.....
October 8, 2020
one of the greatest classics of world literature. kind of difficult though.
March 11, 2008
This is a great, great bk. To people like myself who're acutely aware of how little respect working class intellectuals get in this society, this is a shining example of just how intelligent a working class person can be. This is one of my favorite novels of all time. It was written by a man whose job it was to drive bulls across the Australian countryside. It's full of wry observation about humanity & careful sober philosophy. & thoroughly entertaining to boot. I've even read it TWICE.
June 3, 2015
Furphy’s narrator is a self-educated minor government official, who roams the outback in the company of a dog and two horses, crossing paths with drovers and swagmen and philosophizing all the while. The digressions can be long, boring, and sometimes infuriating, and yet I think they make the book what it is, and it would be an inferior book without them. It’s a reaction to the flowery language of writers like Marcus Clarke. You can imagine that it is exactly the way a self-educated bush philosopher who spends his spare time reading Shakespeare and Victorian novelists would talk—never one word when ten will do.
The only really detrimental aspect of this book is Furphy’s attempt at dialect. The bush of Australia is peopled with all different nationalities, and all except the Australians of European descent are given ridiculous accents or manner of speech. There are a few different English accents, plus Irish, Scottish, Chinese, French, German, and Dutch. Besides betraying a troubling (if unsurprising) racism (especially in the case of the Chinese dialect), all of them are nearly incomprehensible and painful to read. It is a comic novel, and perhaps the turn-of-the-century audience would have found it hilarious, but it is really quite difficult to read—not purely because it’s dialect, but because it’s terrible dialect. When reading the dialect work of, say, Irvine Welsh, as soon as you read the impenetrable dialogue aloud it is easy to understand because he has phonetically captured a mode of speech that is then comprehensible to the non-Scots reader. Furphy’s dialogue, on the other hand, sounds like complete gibberish when read aloud and I ended up having to skip some of the dialect passages because I couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
Such is Life was an entertaining read for the most part, but I don’t know that there’s much reason to read this book when Henry Lawson is available; Lawson’s writing about outback life is both more nuanced and more readable.
This review is taken from my blog, Around the World in 2000 Books
The only really detrimental aspect of this book is Furphy’s attempt at dialect. The bush of Australia is peopled with all different nationalities, and all except the Australians of European descent are given ridiculous accents or manner of speech. There are a few different English accents, plus Irish, Scottish, Chinese, French, German, and Dutch. Besides betraying a troubling (if unsurprising) racism (especially in the case of the Chinese dialect), all of them are nearly incomprehensible and painful to read. It is a comic novel, and perhaps the turn-of-the-century audience would have found it hilarious, but it is really quite difficult to read—not purely because it’s dialect, but because it’s terrible dialect. When reading the dialect work of, say, Irvine Welsh, as soon as you read the impenetrable dialogue aloud it is easy to understand because he has phonetically captured a mode of speech that is then comprehensible to the non-Scots reader. Furphy’s dialogue, on the other hand, sounds like complete gibberish when read aloud and I ended up having to skip some of the dialect passages because I couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
Such is Life was an entertaining read for the most part, but I don’t know that there’s much reason to read this book when Henry Lawson is available; Lawson’s writing about outback life is both more nuanced and more readable.
This review is taken from my blog, Around the World in 2000 Books
March 16, 2020
13 years ago I read this novel, and in hindsight I realise that I barely understood it. What's strange is that even though I missed half of what's going on, I still loved this book as a teenager. On the surface it is a realistic portrait of 'life and times'. It is an induction into a certain way of life at a certain time in a certain place. This is what I loved as a teenager. I loved the homely details, the witty style, the exoticism of bullockys on the Riverina one hundred and fifty years since.
Reading it again, with the benefit of a postgraduate degree in English Literature and a much deeper knowledge of Australia's colonial history, I was both sadder and gladder. Sadder, because I can no longer take such delight in the novel's witty surface. Furphy's learning is not as great as it seemed to me before. The book is also disfigured by race-consciousness, and I find it harder than I used to to apologise for colonial and imperialist attitudes. But as I made it through the book, and its dense web of subplots and ironies opened out before me, I realised that in fact the novel is more-or-less the opposite of what I thought it was as a young man. Tom Collins, the narrator, is fool whom I mistook for a philosopher. His learning is pedantic. His race-consciousness is pedantry too. His actions are casually despicable. And the real story of the book, the tale of the two Alfs, unfolds in a natural and tragic manner the undoes the book at its seams.
At one point Collins adjures the reader to be 'attentive', and you really do have to attend to understand the novel. Like Ulysses, it is almost supernaturally allusive and detailed. There are many clues, but very few explanations—and most of the latter are misleading anyhow. It is a book of its moment, tinged with feelings and images that all humane Australians now regret. If you can patiently let the novel's ironies unfurl, however, it gradually unzips the ugliness that plays about on the surface, and a weird, attractive kind of non-philosophy emerges from the depths.
November 20, 2018
This novel has been in my bucket list for decades and finally having gotten around to it, I was not disappointed – though at times the reader needs to be VERY patient and have some empathy, if not resilience, to get through to the end.
The narrative device is that story is a set of diary extracts belonging to Tom Collins. Within each extract is a story which often branches of into sub-plots. The novel gives an insight into bush life and rural work in the late 1800s.
There are gems of writing which highlight the folkloric Australian form of laconic humour and stoicism in the face hardship. Such as “the pioneer is the man who never spared others; the forgotten pioneer is the man who never spared himself, but, being a fool built houses for the wise men to live in and omitted to gather moss. The former is the early bird, the latter is the early worm.”
And “… but a short cut, impassable during the winter, and impracticable at any time to wheeled vehicles…” - a road for optimistic fools.
Part of the novel was difficult for me – the writer’s tool for developing back block (outback) accents used in a part of the novel was difficult more me to follow.
Words such as “dnya” – “didn’t ya” being one of the comfortable slang examples but “Bea n’t Oi a dwiewin’ wot Oibe a-peead f’r diewon? Coomh!” tended to stretch me.
The sentences is this drawl were easier to read when I tried to say them aloud but at some points I just skimmed over the slang as it went on for consecutive paragraphs. These are easier to understand if you imagine them spoken with a Scottish or even Yorkshire accent.
For a linguist or a person undertaking family history research this slang would be invaluable if their ancestors lived in the areas in which the sub-stories were notionally set for an insight into how people did actually sound in the 1880s bush country. I suspect Furphy’s readers certainly would have been comfortable with it. Indeed if one considers demographic studies of Australian in the 20th century circa 1850 20% of the population was Scottish or of that heritage, the use of the slang to create a heavy brogue is further understandable.
Some of the characterization can cause offence today concerning different cultural types. But rather than condemn the book for this – I consider a good measure as to how we have moved forward.
The narrative device is that story is a set of diary extracts belonging to Tom Collins. Within each extract is a story which often branches of into sub-plots. The novel gives an insight into bush life and rural work in the late 1800s.
There are gems of writing which highlight the folkloric Australian form of laconic humour and stoicism in the face hardship. Such as “the pioneer is the man who never spared others; the forgotten pioneer is the man who never spared himself, but, being a fool built houses for the wise men to live in and omitted to gather moss. The former is the early bird, the latter is the early worm.”
And “… but a short cut, impassable during the winter, and impracticable at any time to wheeled vehicles…” - a road for optimistic fools.
Part of the novel was difficult for me – the writer’s tool for developing back block (outback) accents used in a part of the novel was difficult more me to follow.
Words such as “dnya” – “didn’t ya” being one of the comfortable slang examples but “Bea n’t Oi a dwiewin’ wot Oibe a-peead f’r diewon? Coomh!” tended to stretch me.
The sentences is this drawl were easier to read when I tried to say them aloud but at some points I just skimmed over the slang as it went on for consecutive paragraphs. These are easier to understand if you imagine them spoken with a Scottish or even Yorkshire accent.
For a linguist or a person undertaking family history research this slang would be invaluable if their ancestors lived in the areas in which the sub-stories were notionally set for an insight into how people did actually sound in the 1880s bush country. I suspect Furphy’s readers certainly would have been comfortable with it. Indeed if one considers demographic studies of Australian in the 20th century circa 1850 20% of the population was Scottish or of that heritage, the use of the slang to create a heavy brogue is further understandable.
Some of the characterization can cause offence today concerning different cultural types. But rather than condemn the book for this – I consider a good measure as to how we have moved forward.
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August 8, 2022Reviewing specifically the Annotated Such is Life, a remarkable rendering of an increasingly difficult Australian "classic". Furphy's book has a complex production history (two long chapters, cut during editing, would be extended into two additional novels which operate as adjuncts to this one), presents social and cultural challenges to the lay 21st century reader with its in-depth knowledge of bush customs of the time, and profits from Furphy's dense, layered cultural references which invite not entirely unreasonable comparisons to Ulysses. The first chapter is, unfortunately for readers, the most difficult, and this volume provides a handy two-page summary (in the appendix) to assist in interpretation.
A scintillating piece of scholarship.
A scintillating piece of scholarship.
January 5, 2023
This is a book that is regarded as a classic in Australian literature, and definitely take you back to a time when Australian traditions and its reputation as a country are being developed. The language and the livestyles reminded me of a bygone era.
Tom Collins, the protagonist certainly tells a good yarn, however its is spoiled by his attempt to use phonetics to describe the language used by other characters within the story, sometimes leaving the reader clueless as to what is being said. That aside , the book tells a great story
Tom Collins, the protagonist certainly tells a good yarn, however its is spoiled by his attempt to use phonetics to describe the language used by other characters within the story, sometimes leaving the reader clueless as to what is being said. That aside , the book tells a great story
August 11, 2020
Didn’t even get past 100 pages, whole lot Of mumbo jumbo, not my kind of book
February 12, 2023
Seems purposefully written to be as obnoxiously incomprehensible as possible.
July 20, 2021
This book in some editions has the subtitle “Being Certain Extracts From The Diary of Tom Collins”. The narrator, Tom Collins introduces the book by explaining that he has some time off from work as a minor government official and plans to use extracts from the diary he has been keeping from 22 years to tell stories about Australian rural life in an area of New South Wales and Victoria known as the Riverina. He randomly picks September 9th, 1883, as his starting point.
When the narrative begins Collins is travelling on horseback through Riverina and the book recounts the people he encounters and the adventures he has over the course of his three-month leave of absence. He has lived and worked in the area so most of the people he meets are people has known as a result of one occupation or another, he has a history with them. The stories he tells vividly bring to life the rural scene in the 1880s
The first group he meets are bullock team drivers. Using harnessed teams of 12 to 20 bullocks, these drivers are the equivalent of the semi-truck drivers who carry goods back and forth today. These bullock-team pulled trucks carry wool and other farm products to market from the sheep and cattle stations in the Riverina. The stations where they pick up their loads are happy for the teams to get feed and water there, but intervening stations on the route have no interest in providing grazing for teams travelling through. They have to tap into local contacts to see where they might stop for the night without being detected by the landowners and then make a hasty retreat in the early morning, not so easy when they first have to catch their wandering bullocks and then take a route through boggy ground where sometimes two teams have to be hitched together to get through it.
In another section of the book, he meets a swagman, an itinerant laborer walking from station to station looking for work. He spends time on a station and at another time delivering wire to a boundary rider who is repairing and extending a station’s fence. You get a in depth picture of rural life of the period and a sense of the hierarchy that has built up as farmers who originally squatted on aboriginal land were eventually recognized as owners by the government and built wealth and power.
There are moments of great comedy too. At one point he crosses a river to try and warn a friend that his bullocks are about to be impounded. He is swimming across with his clothes on his head when his faithful dog panics, jumps onto his head and knocks the clothes and possessions into the surging river. Collins’ account of escapades trying to beg, borrow or steal some clothes is hilarious.
Two things tend to slow the narrative down somewhat, first long discourses on subjects as varied as literature, bodily cleanliness, and pipe smoking. The second is Furphy’s attempts to represent the dialects and accents of the varied people he meets. In the 19th century many of the inhabitants of Australia were recent immigrants or recently released convicts, `Port Philipers’ , Having come from many European countries and from China they have brought their local accents with them. Furphy’s attempts to recreate the vernacular of each character sometimes makes for almost incomprehensible prose.
This book was written in 1897 and published in 1903. It took several decades for it to be recognized as a classic of Australian literature. The title apparently comes from Ned Kelly’s last words as he was about to be hanged. The ironic tone of those words well matches the stories and subtexts of this engaging novel.
When the narrative begins Collins is travelling on horseback through Riverina and the book recounts the people he encounters and the adventures he has over the course of his three-month leave of absence. He has lived and worked in the area so most of the people he meets are people has known as a result of one occupation or another, he has a history with them. The stories he tells vividly bring to life the rural scene in the 1880s
The first group he meets are bullock team drivers. Using harnessed teams of 12 to 20 bullocks, these drivers are the equivalent of the semi-truck drivers who carry goods back and forth today. These bullock-team pulled trucks carry wool and other farm products to market from the sheep and cattle stations in the Riverina. The stations where they pick up their loads are happy for the teams to get feed and water there, but intervening stations on the route have no interest in providing grazing for teams travelling through. They have to tap into local contacts to see where they might stop for the night without being detected by the landowners and then make a hasty retreat in the early morning, not so easy when they first have to catch their wandering bullocks and then take a route through boggy ground where sometimes two teams have to be hitched together to get through it.
In another section of the book, he meets a swagman, an itinerant laborer walking from station to station looking for work. He spends time on a station and at another time delivering wire to a boundary rider who is repairing and extending a station’s fence. You get a in depth picture of rural life of the period and a sense of the hierarchy that has built up as farmers who originally squatted on aboriginal land were eventually recognized as owners by the government and built wealth and power.
There are moments of great comedy too. At one point he crosses a river to try and warn a friend that his bullocks are about to be impounded. He is swimming across with his clothes on his head when his faithful dog panics, jumps onto his head and knocks the clothes and possessions into the surging river. Collins’ account of escapades trying to beg, borrow or steal some clothes is hilarious.
Two things tend to slow the narrative down somewhat, first long discourses on subjects as varied as literature, bodily cleanliness, and pipe smoking. The second is Furphy’s attempts to represent the dialects and accents of the varied people he meets. In the 19th century many of the inhabitants of Australia were recent immigrants or recently released convicts, `Port Philipers’ , Having come from many European countries and from China they have brought their local accents with them. Furphy’s attempts to recreate the vernacular of each character sometimes makes for almost incomprehensible prose.
This book was written in 1897 and published in 1903. It took several decades for it to be recognized as a classic of Australian literature. The title apparently comes from Ned Kelly’s last words as he was about to be hanged. The ironic tone of those words well matches the stories and subtexts of this engaging novel.
November 11, 2015
This book is below average as a novel, but it does have some historical interest that increases its readability. It does have one of the best opening lines of any novel I have encountered, which is: Unemployed at last! Apart from that, there is little of note in Furphy's prose style. Its main interest for me was its portrayal of Australian bush life at the turn of the century (the nineteenth to twentieth century, that is), as I happened to have an interest in Australian history at that time. Without such an interest I would have found this novel extremely tedious.
January 18, 2017
The fictional diary of Tom Collins, a public servant working in a small area around the Riverina district in the 1870s, mostly dealing with bullock drivers and station owners, with a little contemporary politics of the era.
Most of the dialogue is in the vernacular and is difficult to understand as its not done all that well. It was done in the style of a magazine called "The Bulletin" aka "The Bushman's Bible", which was heavily inspired by the "Wild West" stories of the era in the US.
Most of the dialogue is in the vernacular and is difficult to understand as its not done all that well. It was done in the style of a magazine called "The Bulletin" aka "The Bushman's Bible", which was heavily inspired by the "Wild West" stories of the era in the US.
December 7, 2014
Entertaining eccentric Australian bush classic, written in 1902 about 1880s bullockies, drovers, squatters and swaggies. Full of Shakespeare quotes, Latin sayings and yarns of misadventures and romance.
March 11, 2023
You can tell when a book is overly edited as this one, a 19th century tale of outback adventures without a single swear word. The strange absence of aussie swearing has left this book without heart and soul add humor too boot "fair suck of the sav" disappointed like a flea on bald dog I was.
Want to read
October 17, 201150c @charity shop 30.4.2011
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews