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y separately published work icon The Children's Bach single work   novella  
Issue Details: First known date: 1984... 1984 The Children's Bach
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Athena and Dexter lead an enclosed family life, innocent of fashion and bound towards a disturbed child. Their comfortable rut is disrupted by the arrival of Elizabeth, a tough nut from Dexter's past. With her three charming, chaotic hangers-on, she draws the couple out into a world whose casual egotism they had barely dreamed of. How can they get home again? (Source: publisher's website)

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For

AC: Year 11 (Literature Unit 2). Year 11 has been chosen as the focus for this unit because it deals with significant themes demanding some maturity with a strong focus on literary technique and analysis appropriate to Year 11.

Themes

aspirations, autism, disability, domesticity, family, infidelity, isolation, marriage, music, relationships

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Intercultural understanding, Literacy

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: McPhee Gribble , 1984 .
      image of person or book cover 6849505702716625776.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 96p.
      Reprinted: 1989 0869140744 (pbk.)
      ISBN: 0869140299
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: McPhee Gribble , 1985 .
      image of person or book cover 8185390526747745910.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 96p.
      ISBN: 014008715
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 6913176690854875628.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 96p.
      Reprinted: 1999 0140286284
      ISBN: 0140259163 (pbk.)
    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 3653583150136487786.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 163p.
      ISBN: 9780143180043 (pbk.)
      Series: Penguin Modern Classics series - publisher
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 2497515706298007526.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 176p.p.
      Edition info: Hardback ed.
      Note/s:
      • Published November 2018.

      ISBN: 9781925773040, 9781925626513
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Pantheon Books ,
      2023 .
      image of person or book cover 1465604250078267500.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 176p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 10 October 2023.
      • Introduction by Rumaan Alam.
      ISBN: 9780553387414
Alternative title: Podle Bacha
Language: Czech
    • Prague,
      c
      Czech Republic,
      c
      Eastern Europe, Europe,
      :
      Fraktaly ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 5215730541610282991.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 108p.
      ISBN: 808662708X

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.
  • Braille.

Works about this Work

A Master Anatomist of Ordinary People in Difficult Times Daphne Merkin , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 10 October 2023;

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella ; This House of Grief Helen Garner , 2014 single work non-fiction

'With the republication of “The Children’s Bach,” a 1984 novel, and “This House of Grief,” a 2014 account of a murder trial, the Australian writer Helen Garner is ripe for discovery by American readers.'

 

Disorder Down Under Daphne Merkin , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 19 November 2023; (p. 12)

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella ; This House of Grief Helen Garner , 2014 single work non-fiction

'I had never heard of the Australian writer Helen Garner when I started reading her novel “The Children’s Bach,” and the book puzzled me at first, before I got into the scatty, nonlinear rhythm of its prose. We are immediately introduced to a cluster of characters: Dexter; his wife, Athena; their two little boys, one of them developmentally disabled; the adult sisters Elizabeth and Vicki; Elizabeth’s lover Philip and his adolescent daughter, Poppy. How, I wondered, were the characters connected to one another, and why did Garner’s sentences seem to float through the air like random thoughts?' (Introduction)

Helen Garner’s House of Fiction Brigid Rooney , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel 2023; (p. 163-177)

'This chapter considers Helen Garners fiction, assessing the evolution of her work from the scandalous diary-like immediacy of the Monkey Grip (1977) through to her minimalist masterpiece The Children’s Bach (1984). Throughout, it considers the house as a core spatial configuration that changes across Garner’s work.' (Publication abstract)

The Children's Bach Reconsidered Peter Hayes , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Institute Review , July no. 14 2020;

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella
y separately published work icon Live Recording : Helen Garner on Her Early Career Chloe Hooper (interviewer), 2019 23469032 2019 single work podcast interview

'Helen Garner talks with Chloe Hooper about her early career and the impact of Monkey Grip and The Children’s Bach on her writing life. This is a live recording from our event.' (Production summary) 

[Review] The Children's Bach John Webb , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Fremantle Arts Centre Broadsheet , May - June vol. 4 no. 3 1985; (p. 2)

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella
Garner's New Dimensions Adrian Mitchell , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 8-9 December 1984; (p. 16)

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella
Sound Advice From Helen Garner Peter Pierce , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 1 December 1984; (p. 18)

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella
Two Australian Novels... Bach , Like Life is Never Simple Katharine England , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 8 December 1984; (p. 9)

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella ; Shallows Tim Winton , 1984 single work novel
[Review] The Children's Bach R. Beeby , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 13 December 1984; (p. 14)

— Review of The Children's Bach Helen Garner , 1984 single work novella
Helen's Consolation Peter Wilmoth , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 15 June 2008; (p. 12)
Bach to the Future Peter Wilmoth , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 15 June 2008; (p. 19)
A Novel Approach to Modern Opera Robin Usher , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 17 June 2008; (p. 14)
Habe Dank! Chester Eagle , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Well in the Shadow : A Writer's Journey through Australian Literature 2010; (p. 30-43)
A survey of Helen Garner's 'first phase'.
Greek Olives and Italian Prosciutto on Crusty French Bread : Food in Contemporary Fiction by Australian Women Jennifer Mitchell , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , vol. 2 no. 2010;
'Women have often had a troubled relationship with food, but in recent decades there has been a bit of a turn around - at least in fictional terms. In some earlier Australian feminist fiction from the 1970s and 1980s, women were often portrayed as oppressed by, or resistant to, food and eating. Here I explore food in Kate Grenville's Lilian's Story, Andrea Goldsmith's Gracious Living, and two works by Helen Garner - The Children's Bach and Cosmo Cosmolino. In these stories women refrain from eating, or over indulge, as forms of resistance to oppression. But times have changed. This essay examines the changing nature of how food is represented in fiction by Australian women. The later novels explored here - Drusilla Modjeska's The Orchard, Marion Halligan's The Fog Garden, Stephanie Dowrick Tasting Salt and Amanda Lohrey's Camille's Bread (1995) - significantly reframe food preparation and consumption as positive experiences that promote women's independence, and contribute to their creative lives and personal relationships. These later texts transcend the earlier view of domesticated women as anxious or resistant consumers of food. Instead, food is aesthetically rich and sensually rewarding; a controllable and pleasurable experience promoting health, wellbeing, and positive loving relationships. (Author's abstract)
Last amended 23 Oct 2023 08:59:03
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