While the Billy Boils

by Henry Lawson

While the Billy Boils is a collection of short stories by the Australian writer Henry Lawson, published by Angus and Robertson in 1896. It includes "The Drover's Wife", "On the Edge of a Plain", and "The Union Buries Its Dead".

The collection consists of 52 short stories from a variety of sources. Some are published here for the first time.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction

409 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer".[1] He was the son of the poet, publisher and feminist Louisa Lawson.
For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_La... .

Reviews

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely amazing book full of stories (often featuring the same characters) of life and death in 19th century Australia.

[Heather Browning]

I came into this book not really expecting to like it, but was definitely pleasantly surprised. The stories, while simple, have amazing depth and emotion. The overall feeling was very Australian, the hardships and lack of hope offset by the humour and strength of friendship. The stories could make me laugh and weep, sometimes together. Beautiful work.

[LauraT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anche **1/2
Non c'è niente da fare, per quanto ogni tanto mi ci provi, il racconto breve proprio non è "my piece of cake"! Capisco e so che alcuni scrittori lo hanno reso eccellente - la Munro ci ha anche preso un Nobel proprio per questo genere - ma io, amante del vittorianesimo, delle milioni di parole come un mare dento cui "il naufragar mi è dolce" non mi ci trovo a mio agio.
Tutti piccoli "glimpses", piccole vedute di un singolo aspetto, singolo fatto, mi manca il tutto.
Non c'è verso, nonostante tutto la mia avversione rimango hegeliana dentro!!!!!!

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories take me out beyond the bitumen to times past. I can smell the gum leaves. I think I'll have a cup of tea. Better still, make it a tin cup.

[Hope Nakagawa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not madly in love with Lawson's stories as I was with Barbara Baynton. Though his exploration of realism really gave the impression that the "Aussie Legend" was a flawed and really quite gross thing. This reduced some of the cultural cringe I have toward depictions of Australian culture.
More thoughts can be read here: https://subvertpopculture.wordpress.c...

[Deke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful short story collection is a time capsule, each tale - some very short - capturing another moment in the hardscrabble, depression-era Australian outback. The title refers to a tin can suspended over the fire filled with tea leaves and water from a local stream, these anecdotes landing like local gossip as the sun sets around the campfire. Reminds me of Cannery Row (one of my favorite books).

[Colin Parton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This melancholy treatise on Australia is fabulous. Lawson has no peer in his ability to capture the downtrodden Australian in all their glory. A great read and the characters feel real, even though some of the stories are only one or two pages long.

My only problem is that there is too close a similarity to some of the stories. But I think overall this is a good thing as it gives the collection of stories something to hold them together.

[Ellyn → Allonsythornraxx]

19/07/2019
This is technically a dnf, but I was never going to finish this. I read this for school and read a substantial number of the stories in here, but I don't need to read them all so I won't. This wasn't an awful read but like most of my course books for Uni, I would never pick this up on my own.

[Annette Heslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard of some of the titles of these stories, but never read them. It is easy to imagine these being told round a campfire, whilst waiting for a billy to boil.
Another great read, and I look forward to reading more of Lawson's works.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawson's writing is beautiful, subtle, and incredibly evocative of time and place. While the Billy Boils is full of wonderful stories and sketches, but for me it doesn’t quite work as a collection. There is a sketch describing a train trip across the Australian outback, the monotony of the long miles and faceless towns only somewhat relieved chance meetings with colorful strangers. The book reads something like that; each sketch beautiful and true, every character interesting, yet read all together there is a sameness about it that leaves the reader a little bit bored. That being said, I highly recommend the book.

This is taken from a review I wrote for my blog, Around the World in 2000 Books

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great Australian sketch / story writer and poet Henry Lawson (1867-1922) made a complete hash of his personal life, which was all to the benefit of his writing because the pain was quite real and the experiences genuine. His favored form was the almost or completely plotless sketch, although some of the pieces do approach the status of conventional stories. Never one to waste words, his compression was inevitably later compared to Hemingway’s.