y separately published work icon Captain Cub single work   novel   young adult  
Is part of The Cub Ethel Turner , 1915-1919 series - author novel (number 2 in series)
Issue Details: First known date: 1917... 1917 Captain Cub
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Cub goes to Gallipoli and speedily wins promotion, being the youngest captain in the forces. The life there is well depicted, and so is the great evacuation. The main theme of the book, however, is the love story of the Cub and Brigid, which is charming and idyllic, and entirely unlike the modern style'.

Source:

'Captain Cub' [review], The World's News, 3 November 1917, p.29. (Via Trove Australia)

Exhibitions

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7457004
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Notes

  • 'All things uncomely and broken, all things worn and old, / The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart...' -- Yeats.
  • According to contemporary reviews, the novel was originally serialised in The Daily Telegraph.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Melbourne, Victoria,: Ward, Lock ,       1917 .
      Extent: 255 p., [6] leaves of platesp.
      Description: illus.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Melbourne, Victoria,: Ward, Lock ,       1922 .
      Extent: 255 p., [6] leaves of platesp.
      Description: illus.
Alternative title: Kapten Cub
Language: Swedish
    • Stockholm,
      c
      Sweden,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,      :       Fahlcrantz ,       1918 .
      Extent: 157p.
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Related Works

y separately published work icon The Cub : Six Months in His Life : A Story in War-Time Ethel Turner , London Melbourne : Ward, Lock , 1915 Z169216 1915 single work novel young adult war literature

'Miss Ethel Turner has written a war-time story of very considerable merit and has chosen as was to be expected to develop the greater portion of the action in Australia, but the story is none the less a war-time story on that account. The tale is happily conceived and delightfully told, and there is not an uninteresting page in the book. It opens in Brussels, at the beginning of the war, when a young English girl, after some thrilling adventures, rescues a little Belgian girl—Josette—from a cruel fate. The Eng- lish girl, Brigid Lindsay, makes the ac- quaintance of the Calthrops, a wealthy Australian family, the younger son of which is the Cub of the title. The scene and the actors shift to Australia, and we are given a number of pictures of Australian patriotic activities in war time. Much againist his mother's wish, the elder of the Calthrop boys volunteers for active service, and falls in action, and the last chapter closes with the departure of the Cub to fill his fallen brother's place. The whole interest centres round the Cub, who is a youth of unusual mental equipment, and possesses ideas of his own on some pressing social and eco- nomnic problems, which are not of conven- tional type. He is in consequence regarded by his friends as "queer." Brigid is a fitting foil to the Cub and is in some respects quite as unconventional.'

Source:

'Literature: A War-time Story', The West Australian, 16 December 1915, p.5. (Via Trove Australia)
y separately published work icon Brigid and the Cub Ethel Turner , London Melbourne : Ward, Lock , 1919 Z960599 1919 single work novel young adult

'Another story of the lovers whose history is now forming a series of readable romances. [...] They have not as yet reached the end every reader has in view for them, and Brigid is in Paris for most of the time, where the Cub spends such leave as he can get. The end of the section comes in England, and is brought about by the news of the armistice and the admission thereby of the Allies' victory.'

Source:

'Brigid and the Cub' [review], The World's News, 27 December 1919, p.29. (Via Trove Australia)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Children's Literature, 1840-1940 Michelle J. Smith , Kristine Moruzi , Clare Bradford , Toronto : University of Toronto Press , 2018 15039944 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'Through a comparison of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand texts published between 1840 and 1940, From Colonial to Modern develops a new history of colonial girlhoods revealing how girlhood in each of these emerging nations reflects a unique political, social, and cultural context.

'Print culture was central to the definition, and redefinition, of colonial girlhood during this period of rapid change. Models of girlhood are shared between settler colonies and contain many similar attitudes towards family, the natural world, education, employment, modernity, and race, yet, as the authors argue, these texts also reveal different attitudes that emerged out of distinct colonial experiences. Unlike the imperial model representing the British ideal, the transnational girl is an adaptation of British imperial femininity and holds, for example, a unique perception of Indigenous culture and imperialism. Drawing on fiction, girls’ magazines, and school magazine, the authors shine a light on neglected corners of the literary histories of these three nations and strengthen our knowledge of femininity in white settler colonies.'  (Publication summary)
“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction)
y separately published work icon Ethel Turner and the 'Voices of Dissent' : Masculinities and Fatherhood in The Cub and Captain Cub Claudia Nelson , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1040837 2003 single work criticism
Attitudes to War in Australian Children's Literature Anne M. O'Sullivan , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , April vol. 5 no. 1 1994; (p. 34-48) O'Sullivan seeks to 'identify attitudes to war in Australian children's literature' in the period 1914-1994, noting in particular the movement from identification with Britain and the Empire in the early decades of this period to an affinity with Asia and the Pacific in the latter decades (34). The discussion begins with a literature review of Australian and overseas critical research in this field and then surveys a large number of (mainly Australian) novels with war as the central/pivotal theme. O'Sullivan concludes that there has been a change in attitudes to war in Australian children's literature, whereby 'once Australia was part of the British Empire and prepared to fight for that anywhere in the world, now multicultural Australia takes a broader view and sees herself as part of a global family' (47).
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery Brenda Niall , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176).
Captain Cub 1917 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Town and Country Journal , 24 October 1917; (p. 11)
— Review of Captain Cub Ethel Turner , 1917 single work novel
y separately published work icon Ethel Turner and the 'Voices of Dissent' : Masculinities and Fatherhood in The Cub and Captain Cub Claudia Nelson , St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1040837 2003 single work criticism
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery Brenda Niall , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176).
Attitudes to War in Australian Children's Literature Anne M. O'Sullivan , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , April vol. 5 no. 1 1994; (p. 34-48) O'Sullivan seeks to 'identify attitudes to war in Australian children's literature' in the period 1914-1994, noting in particular the movement from identification with Britain and the Empire in the early decades of this period to an affinity with Asia and the Pacific in the latter decades (34). The discussion begins with a literature review of Australian and overseas critical research in this field and then surveys a large number of (mainly Australian) novels with war as the central/pivotal theme. O'Sullivan concludes that there has been a change in attitudes to war in Australian children's literature, whereby 'once Australia was part of the British Empire and prepared to fight for that anywhere in the world, now multicultural Australia takes a broader view and sees herself as part of a global family' (47).
“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives Clare Rhoden , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction)
y separately published work icon From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Children's Literature, 1840-1940 Michelle J. Smith , Kristine Moruzi , Clare Bradford , Toronto : University of Toronto Press , 2018 15039944 2018 multi chapter work criticism

'Through a comparison of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand texts published between 1840 and 1940, From Colonial to Modern develops a new history of colonial girlhoods revealing how girlhood in each of these emerging nations reflects a unique political, social, and cultural context.

'Print culture was central to the definition, and redefinition, of colonial girlhood during this period of rapid change. Models of girlhood are shared between settler colonies and contain many similar attitudes towards family, the natural world, education, employment, modernity, and race, yet, as the authors argue, these texts also reveal different attitudes that emerged out of distinct colonial experiences. Unlike the imperial model representing the British ideal, the transnational girl is an adaptation of British imperial femininity and holds, for example, a unique perception of Indigenous culture and imperialism. Drawing on fiction, girls’ magazines, and school magazine, the authors shine a light on neglected corners of the literary histories of these three nations and strengthen our knowledge of femininity in white settler colonies.'  (Publication summary)
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