PROJECT GUTENBERG OF
AUSTRALIA
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MONTHLY NEWSLETTER -
July 2008 [includes details of ebooks placed online during June
2008]
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CONTENTS:
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*
News and Reviews
* Last month's postings
* Other Information (including
details of how to unsubscribe)
NEWS AND
REVIEWS
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Two
English Thrillers
-----------------------------
I have written before
of the newspaper story of a reader who maintained that she simply walked down
the aisles of her local library once a week and chose four books at random, from
the shelves. She walked through a different section of the library each
week--fiction, biography, history, it mattered not to her. She reported that she
could only read one book each week, but chose four so that she could discard the
"fizzers" and move on to the next one.
It was recently brought to my
attention, in an introduction to a book discussing the "western canon" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon),
the list of so-called classic books in western literature, that a person cannot
hope to read all the books she wants to, or feels that she ought to read, in her
lifetime. So, perhaps, the library aisle-walker has the best approach to this
problem of too many books and not enough time. At least she does not waste time
on "fizzers."
This months postings include "The Hole in the Wall" (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800561.txt)
by Arthur Morrison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Morrison)
and "The Franchise Affair" (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800481.txt)
by Josephine Tey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Tey).
I had not read either, and in browsing them both to see if they were "fizzers",
became interested enough to read them both. It is always a pleasant surprise to
find that there are so many books, of which one has never heard, which are of
such high quality. Where there is no one to sing a book's praises, because it is
not on a bestseller list or because there is no money to be made, such a book
must wait for readers to stumble upon it by randomly choosing it from the
library shelf, so to speak.
Some readers will be aware that "The Hole in
the Wall" was serialised by BBC Television in England, with Nigel Rathborne
playing one of the major parts. Few, I venture to suggest, will have read the
book. Following its publication in 1902, V S Pritchett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_S_Pritchett)
described it as "one of the minor masterpieces of the century," although the
century was then not much advanced. Morrison is, at this time, perhaps better
known as a writer of detective fiction, having created the detective Martin
Hewett. However, in "The Hole in the Wall" he did indeed create a minor
masterpiece. This tale of murder, thievery, and general villainy, brilliantly
evokes the Dickensian squalor and evil of the East End of London in the second
half of the eighteenth century.
The story is told through the eyes of a
nine year old boy who goes to live with his grandfather in an old inn, situated
beside the Thames. Many of the events are only half understood by the boy but
the reader is left in no doubt about what is really going on as the tale moves
seamlessly to its violent conclusion.
"The Franchise Affair", published
in 1948, is also set in England and is also concerned with violence. However the
setting and the period are very much removed from those of "The Hole in the
Wall." Two women, a mother and daughter, living the quiet life in a country
house, are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl in
order to get her to do work for them. The charge is denied by the women and they
engage a local solicitor to act on their behalf. He becomes engrossed in the
case and it finally drives him to step outside of the ordered world of a country
solicitor.
Josephine Tey, who also wrote under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot, was baptised
Elizabeth MacKintosh. A brief quote on the back of a paperback edition of the
book credits a reviewer with stating that it is "one of the most intriguing detective
stories ever written." That might be drawing a long bow but there is no doubt
that the book is superbly crafted. As with Morrison's evocation of the East End,
Tey's evocation of the setting of her novel is superb and the twists and turns
in the plot are made entirely believable by Tey's ability to "lay the groundwork"
for each development well in advance of its occurrence.
Both of these novels are well worth a read. If
you read one book a week, you can have a break for a fortnight from walking down
the virtual aisles of the Project Gutenberg Australia library to choose four
books at random. What is more, both books are no further than a mouse-click
away.
Australian Short
Story
---------------------------------------
THE
BUCK-JUMPER
Saturday afternoon.
There were about a dozen Bush
natives, from anywhere, most of them lanky and easy-going, hanging about the
little slab-and-bark hotel on the edge of the scrub at Capertee Camp (a
teamster's camp) when Cob & Co.'s mail-coach and six came dashing down the
siding from round Crown Ridge, in all its glory, to the end of the twelve-mile
stage. Some wiry, ill-used hacks were hanging to the fence and to saplings about
the place. The fresh coach-horses stood ready in a stock-yard close to the
shanty. As the coach climbed the nearer bank of the creek at the foot of the
ridge, six of the Bushmen detached themselves from verandah posts, from their
heels, from the clay floor of the verandah and the rough slab wall against which
they'd been resting, and joined a group of four or five who stood round one. He
stood with his back to the corner post of the stock-yard, his feet well braced
out in front of him, and contemplated the toes of his tight new 'lastic-side
boots and whistled softly. He was a clean-limbed, handsome fellow, with
riding-cords, leggings, and a blue sash; he was Graeco-Roman-nosed, blue-eyed,
and his glossy, curly black hair bunched up in front of the brim of a new
cabbage-tree hat, set well back on his head.
'Do it for a quid, Jack?'
asked one.
'Damned if I will, Jim!' said the young man at the post. 'I'll
do it for a fiver--not a blanky sprat less.'
Jim took off his hat and
'shoved' it round, and 'bobs' were 'chucked' into it. The result was about
thirty shillings.
Jack glanced contemptuously into the crown of the
hat.
'Not me!' he said, showing some emotion for the first time. 'D'yer
think I'm going to risk me blanky neck for your blanky amusement for thirty
blanky bob. I'll ride the blanky horse for a fiver, and I'll feel the blanky
quids in my pocket before I get on.'
Meanwhile the coach had dashed up to
the door of the shanty. There were about twenty passengers aboard--inside, on
the box-seat, on the tail-board, and hanging on to the roof--most of them Sydney
men going up to the Mudgee races. They got down and went inside with the driver
for a drink, while the stablemen changed horses. The Bushmen raised their voices
a little and argued.
One of the passengers was a big, stout, hearty
man--a good-hearted, sporting man and a racehorse-owner, according to his
brands. He had a round red face and a white cork hat. 'What's those chaps got on
outside?' he asked the publican.
'Oh, it's a bet they've got on about
riding a horse,' replied the publican. 'The flash-looking chap with the sash is
Flash Jack, the horse-breaker; and they reckon they've got the champion outlaw
in the district out there--that chestnut horse in the yard.'
The sporting
man was interested at once, and went out and joined the Bushmen.
'Well,
chaps! what have you got on here?' he asked cheerily.
'Oh,' said Jim
carelessly, 'it's only a bit of a bet about ridin' that blanky chestnut in the
corner of the yard there.' He indicated an ungroomed chestnut horse, fenced off
by a couple of long sapling poles in a corner of the stock-yard. 'Flash Jack
there--he reckons he's the champion horse-breaker round here--Flash Jack reckons
he can take it out of that horse first try.'
'What's up with the horse?'
inquired the big, red-faced man. 'It looks quiet enough. Why, I'd ride it
myself.'
'Would yer?' said Jim, who had hair that stood straight up, and
an innocent, inquiring expression. 'Looks quiet, does he? YOU ought to know more
about horses than to go by the looks of 'em. He's quiet enough just now, when
there's no one near him; but you should have been here an hour ago. That horse
has killed two men and put another chap's shoulder out--besides breaking a
cove's leg. It took six of us all the morning to run him in and get the saddle
on him; and now Flash Jack wants to back out of it.'
'Euraliar!' remarked
Flash Jack cheerfully. 'I said I'd ride that blanky horse out of the yard for a
fiver. I ain't goin' to risk my blanky neck for nothing and only to amuse you
blanks.'
'He said he'd ride the horse inside the yard for a quid,' said
Jim.
'And get smashed against the rails!' said Flash Jack. 'I would be a
fool. I'd rather take my chance outside in the scrub--and it's rough country
round here.'
'Well, how much do you want?' asked the man in the mushroom
hat.
'A fiver, I said,' replied Jack indifferently. 'And the blanky stuff
in my pocket before I get on the blanky horse.'
'Are you frightened of us
running away without paying you?' inquired one of the passengers who had
gathered round.
'I'm frightened of the horse bolting with me without me
being paid,' said Flash Jack. 'I know that horse; he's got a mouth like iron. I
might be at the bottom of the cliff on Crown Ridge road in twenty minutes with
my head caved in, and then what chance for the quids?'
'You wouldn't want
'em then,' suggested a passenger. 'Or, say!--we'd leave the fiver with the
publican to bury you.'
Flash Jack ignored that passenger. He eyed his
boots and softly whistled a tune.
'All right!' said the man in the cork
hat, putting his hand in his pocket. 'I'll start with a quid; stump up, you
chaps.'
The five pounds were got together.
'I'll lay a quid to
half a quid he don't stick on ten minutes!' shouted Jim to his mates as soon as
he saw that the event was to come off. The passengers also betted amongst
themselves. Flash Jack, after putting the money in his breeches-pocket, let down
the rails and led the horse into the middle of the yard.
'Quiet as an old
cow!' snorted a passenger in disgust. 'I believe it's a sell!'
'Wait a
bit,' said Jim to the passenger, 'wait a bit and you'll see.' They waited and
saw.
Flash Jack leisurely mounted the horse, rode slowly out of the yard,
and trotted briskly round the corner of the shanty and into the scrub, which
swallowed him more completely than the sea might have done.
Most of the
other Bushmen mounted their horses and followed Flash Jack to a clearing in the
scrub, at a safe distance from the shanty; then they dismounted and hung on to
saplings, or leaned against their horses, while they laughed.
At the
hotel there was just time for another drink. The driver climbed to his seat and
shouted, 'All aboard!' in his usual tone. The passengers climbed to their
places, thinking hard. A mile or so along the road the man with the cork hat
remarked, with much truth--
'Those blanky Bushmen have got too much time
to think.'
The Bushmen returned to the shanty as soon as the coach was
out of sight, and proceeded to 'knock down' the fiver.
THE
END
From "Joe Wilson and his Mates"
by Henry Lawson
http://gutenberg.net.au/pgaus.html#lawson
QUOTABLE
QUOTES
---------------------------------------
I rejoice that there
are owls. Let them do the idiotic and maniacal hooting for men. It
is a sound admirably suited to swamps and twilight woods which no day
illustrates, suggesting a vast and undeveloped nature which men have not
recognized. They represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts
which all have. All day the sun has shone on the surface of some savage
swamp, where the single spruce stands hung with usnea lichens, and small hawks
circulate above, and the chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and the partridge
and rabbit skulk beneath; but now a more dismal and fitting day dawns, and a
different race of creatures awakes to express the meaning of Nature
there.
From "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext95/waldn10.txt
LAST
MONTH'S
POSTINGS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
list of all the books we provide is available from http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty.html
Check
there to see if there are other works by the authors listed below.
--
JUNE POSTINGS --
Jun 2008 Perris of the
Cherry-trees, J S Fletcher
[080063xx.xxx] 1645A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800631.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 The Clue of the Silver Key, Edgar
Wallace [080062xx.xxx]
1644A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800621.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800621h.html
Jun
2008 Boomerang, Helen
Simpson
[080061xx.xxx] 1643A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800611.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800611h.html
Jun
2008 Won by Crime, Frank
Pinkerton
[080060xx.xxx] 1642A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800601.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 The Autobiography of Cockney Tom, Thomas Bastard
[080059xx.xxx] 1641A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800591.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800591h.html
Jun
2008 The Flying Yorkshireman, Eric
Knight
[080058xx.xxx] 1640A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800581.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800581h.html
Jun 2008 Easy to Kill, Hulbert
Footner
[080057xx.xxx] 1639A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800571.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 The Hole in the Wall, Arthur
Morrison
[080056xx.xxx] 1638A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800561.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 To Love and Be Wise, Josephine
Tey
[080055xx.xxx] 1637A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800551.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 The Privateer, Gordon
Daviot
[080054xx.xxx] 1636A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800541.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 Jim Maitland,
Sapper
[080053xx.xxx] 1635A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800531.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800531h.html
Jun
2008 When Carruthers Laughed,
Sapper
[080052xx.xxx] 1634A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800521.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800521h.html
Jun
2008 The Female of the Species,
Sapper
[080051xx.xxx] 1633A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800511.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800511h.html
Jun
2008 The Black Gang,
Sapper
[080050xx.xxx] 1632A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800501.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800501h.html
Jun
2008 Three Came to Ville Marie, Allan
Sullivan [080049xx.xxx]
1631A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800491.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 The Franchise Affair, Josephine
Tey
[080048xx.xxx] 1630A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800481.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 Brat Farrar, Josephine
Tey
[080047xx.xxx] 1629A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800471.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 Sinfully Rich, Hulbert
Footner
[080046xx.xxx] 1628A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800461.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 It Needs to be Said, Frederick Philip
Grove [080045xx.xxx] 1627A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800451.txt
or .zip
Jun 2008 The Final Count,
Sapper
[080044xx.xxx] 1626A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800441.txt
or
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800441h.html
Jun
2008 Bulldog Drummond,
Sapper
[080043xx.xxx] 1625A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800431.txt
or
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800431h.html
OTHER
INFORMATION
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