Also writes as: Patricia O'Rane
Born: Established: 26 Aug 1901 Burwood, Ashfield - Burwood area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 11 Sep 1985 Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Sydney, New South Wales,
'The year 1788: the very beginning of European settlement. These were times of hardship, cruelty and danger. Above all, they were times of conflict between the Aborigines and the white settlers.
'Eleanor Dark brings alive those bitter years with moments of tenderness and conciliation amid the brutality and hostility. The cast of characters includes figures historical and fictional, black and white, convict and settler. All the while, beneath the veneer of British civilisation, lies the baffling presence of Australia, the 'timeless land'.
'The Storm of Time and No Barrier complete the Timeless Land trilogy. ' (Publication summary)
9.165152'Should a woman bear a child knowing that there are traces of insanity in her family? Linda Hainlin, niece of a famous biologist, was aware of the danger when she married Dr. Nigel Hendon, a practical idealist, whose creed was normality and the rational ordering of the world. This book tells how, years later, while temporarily deprived of her husband's sane companionship, Linda feels the oncoming of those homicidal impulses which presage madness. On this tragic theme, 'Prelude to Christopher' is written with strong literary art as a narrative of four days of crisis. The story goes back in memory to the happiness of Linda's love for Nigel, and forward in her frightened imagination to a future from which the strongest must flinch. Christopher, the unborn child, dominates terrific events in which he has no living part to play. The prelude to his birth is told with emotional power.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
8.306623'Sydney Cove, 1799, and three years since Governor Phillip departed. Against a background of continuing convict settlement, hunger, rebellion and the terrifying force of a barely understood land, the saga of Ellen Prentice and the Mannion family continues. Stephen Mannion marries the lovely Conor Moore and brings her back for Ellen to serve. Johnny Prentice goes bush - and re-emerges for one last confrontation with his old master. ' (Publication summary)
6.4031243See also: May, Bernice, 'Patricia O'Rane', The Australian Woman's Mirror, vol. 4, no. 44, 25/9/1928. May interviewed O'Rane in her Blue Mountains home. Dark was 27 at the time and she explains that she used the pseudonym O'Rane, among others, because she wanted to succeed on her own merits, not because she was the daughter of an established poet. The article also describes Dark's garden and provides an insight into her relationship with her father.