Shortlisted for the AUHE Prize in Literary Scholarship 2022 Winner of the Walter McRae Russell Award 2023
Since its publication in 1903, Joseph Furphy's Such is Life has become established as an Australian classic. But which version of the novel is the authoritative text, and what does its history reveal about Australian cultural life?
From Furphy's handwritten manuscript through numerous editions, a controversial abridgement for the British market (condemned by A.D. Hope as a "mutilation"), and periods of obscurity and rediscovery, the text has been reshaped and repackaged by many hands. Furphy's first editors at the Bulletin diluted his socialist message and "corrected" his Australian slang to create a more marketable book. Later, literary players including Vance and Nettie Palmer, Miles Franklin, Kate Baker and Angus & Robertson all took an interest in how Furphy's work should be published.
In a fascinating piece of literary detective work, Osborne traces the book's journey and shows how economic and cultural forces helped to shape the novel we read today.
| ISBN: | 9781743327692 |
| Publication date: | 1st March 2022 |
| Author: | Roger Osborne |
| Publisher: | Sydney University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 206 pages |
| Series: | Sydney Studies in Australian Literature |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers |
Shortlisted for the AUHE Prize in Literary Scholarship 2022 Winner of the Walter McRae Russell Award 2023
Since its publication in 1903, Joseph Furphy's Such is Life has become established as an Australian classic. But which version of the novel is the authoritative text, and what does its history reveal about Australian cultural life?
From Furphy's handwritten manuscript through numerous editions, a controversial abridgement for the British market (condemned by A.D. Hope as a "mutilation"), and periods of obscurity and rediscovery, the text has been reshaped and repackaged by many hands. Furphy's first editors at the Bulletin diluted his socialist message and "corrected" his Australian slang to create a more marketable book. Later, literary players including Vance and Nettie Palmer, Miles Franklin, Kate Baker and Angus & Robertson all took an interest in how Furphy's work should be published.
In a fascinating piece of literary detective work, Osborne traces the book's journey and shows how economic and cultural forces helped to shape the novel we read today.
The Life of Such Is Life features in the following genres: Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
The Life of Such Is Life is available in Paperback
The Life of Such Is Life was written by Roger Osborne and published by Sydney University Press
The Life of Such Is Life has 206 pages
Yes it is part of Sydney Studies in Australian Literature series