On This Page
Description
Australia Felix (1917) is a novel by Henry Handel Richardson. Based on the life of her parents, Australia Felix is the first in a trilogy of novels later published as The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930). The trilogy has earned praise from countless authors and critics for its startling depictions of a man's decline due to mental illness and the lengths to which his wife must go to care for their young family. "In a shaft on the Gravel Pits, a man had been buried alive. At work in a deep show more wet hole, he had recklessly omitted to slab the walls of a drive; uprights and tailors yielded under the lateral pressure, and the rotten earth collapsed, bringing down the roof in its train." Into this dangerous world of mining, Richard Mahony arrives in search of fortune. As the proprietor of Digger's Emporium, his business depends on the trust of his customers, most of them rugged, hard-drinking gold miners. But the men find it hard to respect Mahony, a teetotaler whose upper-class sensibilities strike them as snobbish at best, insulting at worst. As his store slowly fails, Richard turns his attention to the young Polly Turnham, a servant at the local hotel. When they marry, Polly suggests to her husband that he abandon his business and turn to medicine instead. His practice in Ballarat is a success, allowing them to start a family and live comfortably--for a time. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Henry Handel Richardson Australia Felix is a classic of Australian literature reimagined for modern readers. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This really is the Great Australian Novel. It's actually a trilogy which begins in the period of the great gold rush in Ballarat in 1851. While painting some of the most memorable and arresting images of Australian life you will ever read, it traces a search for identity and the struggle of one woman to support her family at a time when a 'lady' did not work. Highly recommended.
Update 10/5/23
And now you can, if you are so minded, read my journal notes about this novel in what I call Reviews from the Archive on my blog. See anzlitlovers.com/2023/05/10/australia-felix-1917-the-fortunes-of-richard-mahoney-1-by-henry-handel-richardson/
Update 10/5/23
And now you can, if you are so minded, read my journal notes about this novel in what I call Reviews from the Archive on my blog. See anzlitlovers.com/2023/05/10/australia-felix-1917-the-fortunes-of-richard-mahoney-1-by-henry-handel-richardson/
Part of a trilogy (also "The way home" and "Ultima Thule") this series of books tells the story of Richard Mahony, a doctor who travels from England to live in Australia in the late 1800s. Australians who know their history will recognise the themes in this book. Through the story of one person over his lifetime, the author tells the story of colonial Australia - fortunes were made and lost in gold and speculation - as were dreams of a new life in a new land. Settlers were caught between their idealised memories of their home country and the opportunities as well as drudgery in their new home. Many new settlers found the landscape and society alien, it seemed to work against them. Those who wished all the time for Australia to be more show more like the old country were disappointed and failed to establish themselves. Often, those who were successful saw the opportunity to create a new life and cast off old social structures. The trilogy is epic and although we sometimes pity Mahony and wish he made different choices in our 21st century hindisght, we can sympathise with him and the other characters who built this country. I was not expecting to enjoy this series so much but having done so, I was surprised that these books weren't more well known and valued as they should be. show less
The title is Latin for "fortunate Australia" or "happy Australia"
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
First published in 1917
132 works; 3 members
Author Information
28+ Works 1,555 Members
Henry Handel Richardson: January 3, 1870 - March 20, 1946 An expatriate writer, Henry Handel Richardson wrote one of Australia's classic works, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917--1929). This was a pen name used by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson. The three novels that make up her trilogy, Australia Felix (1917), The Way Home (1925), and show more Ultima Thule (1929), unfold the saga of Richard Mahony, a character loosely based on Richardson's physician-father. The trilogy is often labeled---not always in a complimentary manner---as "naturalistic," a literary form not currently popular. In recent years, however, readers have begun to approach it in different ways. For example, feminist critics have called attention to the novels' strong women, who provide the strength for the new nation. The trilogy has also been examined as an incisive psychological study of failure revealed through the complex character of Mahony. The novels are so rich in texture that they can also be read as late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social history, depicting as they do day-to-day life in the goldmining town of Balaraat and the colonial city of Melbourne. Richardson was born in Melbourne on January 3, 1870. At the age of 13, she became a boarder at the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne. The experiences there she later used as the basis for The Getting of Wisdom (1910), which was turned into a highly successful film that helped to revive interest in Richardson's work. After graduating from this preparatory school, she received a musical scholarship to provide for further training in Leipzig. Later Richardson would use her experiences in Germany as the basis of her first novel, Maurice Guest (1908). Richardson married a Scottish professor of German and settled in London, remaining there and in the English countryside until her death. She returned to Australia only once or twice after her departure as a young girl; but in her imagination she must have gone back many times. In recognition of her literary achievements, Richardson was awarded the Australian Gold Medal and the King George Jubilee Medal. Richardson died of cancer on 20 March 1946 in Hastings, East Sussex, England. Her cremated remains were scattered by her wish with her husband's at sea. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1917
- People/Characters
- Dr Richard Mahony; Mary Mahony; Mr Ocock; Purdy Smith; Mrs Beamish; John Turnham
- Important places
- Australia; Victoria, Australia; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (goldfields)
- Dedication
- to W.L.R.
- First words
- In a shaft on the Gravel Pits, a man had been buried alive.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Her canvas rattled, her joints creaked and groaned as, lunging forward, she cut her way through the troubled seas that break on the reef-bound coasts of this old, new world.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 127
- Popularity
- 255,922
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.04)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 28
- ASINs
- 7
