image of person or book cover 255397263578763235.jpg
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y separately published work icon The Doubleman single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1985... 1985 The Doubleman
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Clive Broderick, guitar-teacher and occultist - the Doubleman of the title of this acclaimed novel - is speaking of power, and of a realm beyond reality. This is a fable of the sixties, when shared belief-systems crumbled, and the spiritual bazaars of today opened up. Christopher Koch's theme is illusion; and all his characters are bound by it. The Rymers are an electric folk group enjoying mounting success in Sydney. Their producer, Richard Miller, came under Broderick's spell during his youth in Tasmania; so did the guitarists Brady and Burr. Now, years after his death, Broderick's presence remains with all three. Through his disciple, Burr, it will lead to nightmare.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (HarperCollins, 2013 ed.)

Notes

  • Koch won the Order of the Cross of the Terra Mariana, 2002: 5th Class, an Estonian literary award, for this novel.

Affiliation Notes

  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    Type of disability Poliomyelitis.
    Type of character Primary.
    Point of view First person.

    See C.A. Cranston's dissertation 'Deformity as Device in the Twentieth-century Australian Novel'.

     

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Chatto and Windus ,
      1985 .
      image of person or book cover 255397263578763235.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 326p.
      Written as: C. J. Koch
      ISBN: 070112945x
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      McGraw-Hill ,
      1986 .
      image of person or book cover 5356477229894525244.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 326p.
      ISBN: 0070352216
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Grafton Books ,
      1986 .
      image of person or book cover 6285685622554306235.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 352p.
      ISBN: 0586068872
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Avon Books ,
      1987 .
      Extent: 326p.
      ISBN: 0380703106 (pbk.)
    • Pymble, Turramurra - Pymble - St Ives area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Angus and Robertson , 1992 .
      image of person or book cover 2645061280182847414.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 335p.
      ISBN: 0207173214 pbk.
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Minerva , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 1743021481645135732.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 357p.
      ISBN: 1863306110
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2003 .
      Extent: 357p.
      ISBN: 1863306110
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Vintage UK ,
      2003 .
      Extent: 357p.
      ISBN: 1863306110
Alternative title: Doubleman
Language: French

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Neurocognitive Interpretations of Australian Literature : Criticism in the Age of Neuroawareness Jean-François Vernay , London : Routledge , 2021 21558011 2021 multi chapter work criticism

'This unique book on neurocognitive interpretations of Australian literature covers a wide range of analyses by discussing Australian Literary Studies, Aboriginal literary texts, women writers, ethnic writing, bestsellers, neurodivergence fiction, emerging as well as high profile writers, literary hoaxes and controversies, book culture, LGBTIQA+ authors, to name a few. It eclectically brings together a wide gamut of cognitive concepts and literary genres at the intersection of Australian literary studies and cognitive literary studies in the first single-author volume of its kind. It takes Australian Literary Studies into the age of neuroawareness and provides new pathways in contemporary criticism.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Fairy Tale Transformation : The Pied Piper Theme in Australian Fiction Sophie Masson , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: M/C Journal , August vol. 19 no. 4 2016;
'The traditional German tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin inhabits an ambiguous narrative borderland, a liminal space between fact and fiction, fantasy and horror, concrete details and elusive mystery. In his study of the Pied Piper in Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature, Wolfgang Mieder describes how manuscripts and other evidence appear to confirm the historical base of the story. Precise details from a fifteenth-century manuscript, based on earlier sources, specify that in 1284 on the 26th of June, the feast-day of Saints John and Paul, 130 children from Hamelin were led away by a piper clothed in many colours to the Koppen Hill, and there vanished (Mieder 48). Later manuscripts add details familiar today, such as a plague of rats and a broken bargain with burghers as a motive for the Piper’s actions, while in the seventeenth century the first English-language version advances what might also be the first attempt at a “rational” explanation for the children’s disappearance, claiming that they were taken to Transylvania. ' (Introduction)
'Gothic Splendours'? : Recent Tasmanian Historical Fiction Peter Pierce , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Island , no. 142 2015; (p. 20-26)
Peter Pierce investigates recent 'Gothic' historical fiction set in Tasmania.
What I’m Reading Young Dawkins , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2014;
Going Off Rachel Edwards , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Island , Spring no. 130 2012; (p. 12-13)
[Review] Palomino [et al] P. Lewis , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: London Magazine , vol. 25 no. 1-2 1985; (p. 148-152)

— Review of Palomino Elizabeth Jolley , 1980 single work novel ; The Doubleman Christopher Koch , 1985 single work novel ; Illywhacker Peter Carey , 1985 single work novel
[Review] The Doubleman Bruce A. Clunies Ross , 1984 single work review
— Appears in: Kunapipi , vol. 6 no. 3 1984; (p. 101-103)

— Review of The Doubleman Christopher Koch , 1985 single work novel
[Review] The Doubleman Veronica Brady , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , September vol. 30 no. 3 1985; (p. 89-94)

— Review of The Doubleman Christopher Koch , 1985 single work novel
By Dreams to Disaster Margaret John , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 71 1985; (p. 5-6)

— Review of The Doubleman Christopher Koch , 1985 single work novel
Dark Corners of the Mind Explored in a New Australian Novel Katharine England , 1985 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 4 May 1985; (p. 7)

— Review of The Doubleman Christopher Koch , 1985 single work novel
Les 'Bildungsromane' de Christopher Koch : de la formation a la transformation Jean-François Vernay , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Correspondances Oceaniennes , October vol. 1 no. 2 2002; (p. 26-29)
Investigates some of Koch's novels and characters in terms of the genre 'Bildungsroman'.
y separately published work icon Water from the Moon : Illusion and Reality in the Works of Australian Novelist Christopher Koch Jean-François Vernay , Youngstown : Cambria Press , 2007 Z1337091 2007 multi chapter work criticism

'Author of six novels, Christopher John Koch (born in 1932) is one of Australia’s leading novelists who enjoys worldwide recognition. Koch’s writing has its finger on the pulse of today’s changing society. Not only does his work fall within a universal stream but it also stands out as a production of its own, built like a puzzle with distinct pieces. Through fiction, Koch explores other genres – the fairy tale, drama, poetry – to the point of producing multi-faceted works which challenge classification. In spite of the constant renewal of his settings for action, one notices the presence of a main thread which runs through Koch’s fiction: the antipodean and ambiguous relationship between illusion and reality.

'This theoretically informed monograph provides a book-by-book analysis of the novelist’s œuvre and gives a full picture of his Weltanschauung. It is valuable reference for scholars in Australian Studies, as well as those researching postcolonial, psychoanalytic and literary theories.

'This book is winner of the Excellence Award 2009 by the THESE-PAC jury (le prix THESE-PAC, Prix Jean-Pierre Piérard) in the South Pacific-Australasia category.'

(Publication summary)

Re-Mapping the Australian Psyche : The Asian Novels of C.J. Koch John Thieme , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , December vol. 47 no. 4 1987; (p. 451-461)
The Architectonics of Doubleness in C. J. Koch's Novels, With Particular Emphasis on The Year of Living Dangerously (1978) and The Doubleman (1985) Phillip K. Cowie , 1986 single work criticism
— Appears in: Saggi e ricerche sulle culture extraeuropee 1986; (p. 83-97)
Manning Clark Mark Thomas , 1989 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Australia in Mind : Thirteen Influential Australian Thinkers 1989; (p. 28-44)
Last amended 29 Jan 2024 09:50:52
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