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y separately published work icon The Life of Such is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic multi chapter work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2022... 2022 The Life of Such is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

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Works about this Work

Roger Osborne, The Life of Such Is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic Julian Croft , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , December vol. 22 no. 2 2022;
— Review of The Life of Such is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic Roger Osborne , 2022 multi chapter work criticism 'Roger Osborne’s The Life of Such Is Life lives up to its title. After finishing this book, it’s hard to disagree with that descriptor of Furphy’s novel. It is alive. That inert object we have on our bookshelves is a living entity, and possibly more than most literary texts, the history of the origin of that physical text shows many similarities to the evolution of a species under selective pressure, to use some of the terminology Furphy would have been familiar with from his reading of Darwin. Moreover, for us in the twenty-first century, hypersensitive to the insights of ecology, we can see that the physical evolution of the printed text depended on the physical ecologies of the publishing and printing industries of Australia, Great Britain, and the United States of America, as well as the metaphysical environment of the “ecology of minds” (to use Gregory Bateson’s term) of the readers whose recorded and unrecorded readings over the past 120 years have created the text(s) (we have to include Rigby’s Romance and The Buln-buln and the Brolga) as we know them today. Osborne gives us a comprehensive account of the physical and metaphysical milieux which produced the phenomenon of Furphy’s grand opus in both its trinitarian and singular manifestations. If that sounds somewhat theological, it might not be out of place, given the number of claims that Such Is Life is our foundational literary narrative, akin to Don Quixote or Moby Dick, claims that surface regularly in the various attempts to keep Such Is Life in print, as Osborne shows.' (Introduction) 
‘Ah Well, I Suppose’ : The Editorial Challenge of Such Is Life Brigid Magner , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 445 2022; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Life of Such is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic Roger Osborne , 2022 multi chapter work criticism '‘Such is life’ is a common phrase in Australian popular culture – it has even been tattooed on bodies – but Joseph Furphy’s novel of the same name, published in 1903, is often forgotten. Ned Kelly mythology suggests that he uttered this phrase just before being hanged in 1880, though some historians argue that what he actually said was, ‘Ah well, I suppose’. Long before Furphy (1843–1912) wrote his magnum opus, the stoic phrase was perhaps wrongly associated with a cult hero’s execution.' (Introduction)
‘Ah Well, I Suppose’ : The Editorial Challenge of Such Is Life Brigid Magner , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 445 2022; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Life of Such is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic Roger Osborne , 2022 multi chapter work criticism '‘Such is life’ is a common phrase in Australian popular culture – it has even been tattooed on bodies – but Joseph Furphy’s novel of the same name, published in 1903, is often forgotten. Ned Kelly mythology suggests that he uttered this phrase just before being hanged in 1880, though some historians argue that what he actually said was, ‘Ah well, I suppose’. Long before Furphy (1843–1912) wrote his magnum opus, the stoic phrase was perhaps wrongly associated with a cult hero’s execution.' (Introduction)
Roger Osborne, The Life of Such Is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic Julian Croft , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: JASAL , December vol. 22 no. 2 2022;
— Review of The Life of Such is Life : A Cultural History of an Australian Classic Roger Osborne , 2022 multi chapter work criticism 'Roger Osborne’s The Life of Such Is Life lives up to its title. After finishing this book, it’s hard to disagree with that descriptor of Furphy’s novel. It is alive. That inert object we have on our bookshelves is a living entity, and possibly more than most literary texts, the history of the origin of that physical text shows many similarities to the evolution of a species under selective pressure, to use some of the terminology Furphy would have been familiar with from his reading of Darwin. Moreover, for us in the twenty-first century, hypersensitive to the insights of ecology, we can see that the physical evolution of the printed text depended on the physical ecologies of the publishing and printing industries of Australia, Great Britain, and the United States of America, as well as the metaphysical environment of the “ecology of minds” (to use Gregory Bateson’s term) of the readers whose recorded and unrecorded readings over the past 120 years have created the text(s) (we have to include Rigby’s Romance and The Buln-buln and the Brolga) as we know them today. Osborne gives us a comprehensive account of the physical and metaphysical milieux which produced the phenomenon of Furphy’s grand opus in both its trinitarian and singular manifestations. If that sounds somewhat theological, it might not be out of place, given the number of claims that Such Is Life is our foundational literary narrative, akin to Don Quixote or Moby Dick, claims that surface regularly in the various attempts to keep Such Is Life in print, as Osborne shows.' (Introduction) 
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Last amended 20 Dec 2021 08:38:03
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