Arabella Edge Arabella Edge i(A11623 works by)
Born: Established: London,
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England,
c
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1991
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BiographyHistory

Arabella Edge attended the Lycee in South Kensington. She completed her education at Bristol University, taking a degree in English literature. Edge moved to Australia in 1991 after her mother's death and worked as an editor. She published several short stories during the 1990s and pursued her interest in the 1629 wreck of the Batavia off the coast of Western Australia. Her research produced a short story and the prize-winning novel The Company (2000).

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Company : The Story of a Murderer Sydney : Picador , 2000 Z14391 2000 single work novel historical fiction

'"I, Jeronimus, am a man of phials, a measurer of powders on bronze scales, a potion brewer, an opium and arsenic merchant. The primped and perfumed Amsterdam burghers came to me in droves requiring cures for fevers, love balms, the miscarriage of a bastard child, and, of course, poisons. Ah, poisons."

So speaks Jeronimus Cornelisz, a thirty-year-old apothecary who transforms before our eyes into a murderous madman.

'The Company is a novel based on the 1629 voyage of the Dutch East India Company flagship Batavia, bound for the colonies with a cargo of untold riches. Among the passengers is Cornelisz, a man ousted from polite society by sordid rumors of necromancy. Corrupt to the very marrow of his soul, Cornelisz considers himself God's equal, the rightful heir to gold, silver – even another man's wife. So twisted is he by lust and greed that he incites a mutiny, running the ship aground on a reef.

'All is lost – the ship is wrecked, its passengers dying, the treasure trashed at the bottom of the sea. "The apothecary will heal us," the survivors pray, believing themselves lucky to be alive. In the name of benevolence, Cornelisz seizes command of their island refuge. The brave castaways stir with hope – until the killing begins. For forty frenzied days, Cornelisz decides who shall live and who shall die, leaving his victims with just one wish – that they had gone down with the ship.

'Soaked with the blood of the innocent and the wicked, The Company plunges, with the weight of history, deep into the heart of darkness.'

2001 winner Commonwealth Writers Prize South East Asia and South Pacific Region Best First Book Award
2001 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
The Company 1997 single work short story
— Appears in: Ulitarra , no. 12 1997; (p. 31-42)
2001 winner Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Book
Rapunzel Retold 1995 single work short story
— Appears in: Ulitarra , no. 8 1995; (p. 24-29)
1995 highly recommended Ulitarra-Shaeffer Pen Short Story Competition
Last amended 14 Jun 2012 11:41:15
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