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y separately published work icon Conditions of Faith single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 Conditions of Faith
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'With university behind her, Emily Stanton finds herself on the threshold of life. Introduced to a Scottish engineer, the exoticism of his life in Paris beckons, and she leaves her family home in 1920s Melbourne to become his wife. But far from providing answers, her conventional marriage awakens in her an ardent desire to find a reason for living beyond that of simply wife and mother. This desire leads her to flirt with risk, passion and unorthodox friendships, and carries her to Tunisia on a journey of self-questioning and intellectual reawakening. Conditions of Faith is both a provocative romance and an elegant meditation on a timeless dilemma. Impetuous yet entirely sympathetic, Emily Stanton, like Henry James' Isabel Archer, is in search of a reason for living in a society where motherhood is deemed reason enough. This mesmerising and thought-provoking story of dreams, obsessions and destiny will hold you in thrall.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • St Leonards, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2000 .
      image of person or book cover 627255078526477879.jpg
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      Extent: 406p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 1st June 2000
      ISBN: 1865083089
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Sceptre ,       2000 .
      image of person or book cover 4992776256666040571.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 406p.
      Reprinted: 2001
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 18 May 2000
      ISBN: 0340766662, 9780340766675 (2001 ed.), 0340766670 (2001 ed.)
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Scribner ,       2000 .
      image of person or book cover 5694382722480468762.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 351p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 24 July 2000
      ISBN: 0684869357
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,      :       Berkley Publishing Corporation ,       2002 .
      image of person or book cover 3695321450191780520.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 388p.
      Edition info: Trade pbk ed.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 08 January 2002
      ISBN: 0425181774
Form: audiobook
First known date: 2001
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Works about this Work

The Sydney Harbour Bridge : From Modernity to Post-Modernity in Australian Fiction Paul Genoni , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'This paper considers a recent spate of novels that deal in various ways with the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. These include Peter Corris's Wet Graves; Alex Miller's Conditions of Faith; Vicki Hastrich's ; and Sarah Hay's The Body in the Clouds. It is argued that these novels, written so long after the bridge's completion, are each grappling with the transformation of this icon of Australian modernism into the significant component in the nation's foremost experience of postmodern urban space - Circular Quay.' (Author's abstract)
Continental Heartlands and Alex Miller’s Geosophical Imaginary Elizabeth McMahon , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Novels of Alex Miller : An Introduction 2012; (p. 125-138) This chapter examines 'how the alignment between geography and subjectivity operates in four of Miller's novels to identify his refiguration of the inherited map of modern identities.' (125)
McMahon focuses on The Ancestor Game (1992), Conditions of Faith (2000), Journey to the Stone Country (2002) and Landscape of Farewell (2007).
Representing ‘the Other’ in the Fiction of Alex Miller Elizabeth Webby , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Novels of Alex Miller : An Introduction 2012; (p. 114-124) 'Alex Miller began publishing his novels in 1988 at the end of a period of intense debate in literary circles about the ethics of representation, a debate informed by feminism, multiculturalism and postcolonialism. Put crudely, the debate was about whether white, male writers from first-world countries, the dominant literary players up to this point, should continue to have open slather in writing about their others, i.e. those who were not white or male, now that these others were at last finding their voices and writing back.

In Australia, the debate was particularly focused on the question of white writers' representation of Aboriginals. Indeed, in 1979 I was told, after giving a conference paper on colonial poems about Aboriginals, that I was lucky there were no Aboriginals in the audience. But in feminist circles male appropriation of female voices was also a major issue. Although a total ban on representations of others would clearly have meant the end of fiction as we know it, these debates did draw attention to the stereotyped representations of women, Aboriginals, Chinese and other 'others' found in much earlier Australian writing.

When I first read Alex Miller, soon after The Ancestor Game was published in 1992, I was struck by the unusual empathy shown here for his female characters and their predicaments, as well as by his insightful depictions of people from other cultures. These have continued to be hallmarks of his fiction, with representations of 'otherness' also extending to animals, especially in The Tivington Nott and Landscape of Farewell. My paper, however, will have as its focus The Ancestor Game, Conditions of Faith and Lovesong.' (Author's abstract)
'My Memory has a Mind of Its Own' : Watching the Climbers on the Mountain and The Tivington Nott Peter Pierce , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Novels of Alex Miller : An Introduction 2012; (p. 55-65) 'Not long ago, Alex Miller remarked at a literary event (my witness is a bookseller from Launceston) that 'My memory has a mind of its own'. What might this mean? Perhaps a memory that is truant, given to reinvention, but also set free. Another implication might concern the double insecurity of memory: the tenuousness of our hold on what we can recollect from the past, and the uncertain hold that memory gives us on our present. In any event, that remark by Miller began and then informs this discussion of the first two novels that he wrote, works that draw closely on some salient events of his youth. They are Watching the Climbers on the Mountain (1988) and The Tivington Nott (1989)...' (From author's introduction 55)
Alex Miller and Leo Tolstoy : Australian Storytelling in a European Tradition Brenda Walker , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Novels of Alex Miller : An Introduction 2012; (p. 42-54) 'Alex Miller may be Australia's greatest living writer. I certainly believe this to be the case. I base my view on the depth and range of his narrative preoccupations. He writes about love but his lovers often come from very different cultural backgrounds, and this illuminates what is foundational in love while respecting diversity in the most intimate of human connections. He writes with scrupulousness about the human complications of invasion, massacre and armed conflict. The American novelist Philip Roth writes that art is concerned with nuance, and politics cannot afford nuance (I Married a Communist, 223). Nuance is the most welcome and apparent characteristic of Miller understanding of the politics of territorial dispossession. He writes, also, about art and literature as cultural forces and as imperatives within the lives of individuals. In all his fiction, he is both a great writer and a great thinker. This chapter offers a much more brief appreciation of his work and thought then I would wish, more brief than it deserves. In it, I plan to consider Alex Miller and Tolstoy: both great writers, both great thinkers, especially on matters of love and war.' (Author's introduction 42)
The Long and the Short of It : 24 Writers Michael Sharkey , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Ulitarra , July no. 17/18 2000; (p. 222-232)
— Review of The Week Sonnets D. J. Huppatz , 1999 selected work poetry ; Going for the Eggs in the Middle of the Night Cathoel Jorss , 1999 selected work poetry ; Seasonally Affected Adam Gibson , 2000 selected work poetry ; Every Night They Dance Andy Kissane , 2000 selected work poetry ; In That We Share J. K. Stuart , 2000 selected work poetry ; Under the Same Sun Andy Kissane , 2000 single work novel ; Pirouetting on a Precipice : Poems of the Blue and White Mountains Colleen Burke , 2000 selected work poetry ; Night Song and Other Poems John Muk Muk Burke , 1999 selected work poetry ; The Scarring Geoff Page , 1999 single work novel ; Conditions of Faith Alex Miller , 2000 single work novel ; Cork and Other Poems Louis de Paor , 1999 selected work poetry ; Each Clear Night Marcella Polain , 2000 selected work poetry ; Shimmerings : Poems S. K. Kelen , 2000 selected work poetry ; The Midday Clock : Selected Poems and Drawings R. A. Simpson , 1999 selected work poetry ; A. D. Hope : Selected Poetry and Prose A. D. Hope , 2000 selected work poetry essay extract review
The Vital Shore Judith White , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 22 August vol. 118 no. 6238 2000; (p. 94-95)
— Review of Vixen Hoa Pham , 2000 single work novel ; The Arch-Traitor's Lament Garry Satherley , 2000 single work novel ; The Storyteller Adib Khan , 2000 single work novel ; The Australian Fiance Simone Lazaroo , 2000 single work novel ; Family Album : A Novel of Secrets and Memories Margaret Scott , 2000 single work novel ; Playing Madame Mao Lau Siew Mei , 2000 single work novel ; Conditions of Faith Alex Miller , 2000 single work novel ; The Company : The Story of a Murderer Arabella Edge , 2000 single work novel
Dark and Subterranean Levels of Desire Christopher Bantick , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 25 June 2000; (p. 55)
— Review of Conditions of Faith Alex Miller , 2000 single work novel
Facets of Faith Katharine England , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 24 June 2000; (p. 19)
— Review of Conditions of Faith Alex Miller , 2000 single work novel
Nineteenth Century Trajectory A. P. Riemer , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 221 2000; (p. 38-39)
— Review of Conditions of Faith Alex Miller , 2000 single work novel
The Travelling Heroine in Recent Australian Fiction Elizabeth Webby , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: 'Unemployed at Last!' : Essays on Australian Literature to 2002 for Julian Croft 2002; (p. 175-186) This essay reviews and discusses seven Australian novels published in 2000 and 2001 which all focus on 'travelling heroines'. Trying to explore what these novels tell us about the current state of Australian fiction, Webby sees a trend to avoid contemporary settings and topics and thus a confrontation with current political and social issues such as discrimination and racism. She observes a move from the nineteenth to the twentieth century as 'the favoured domain for serious Australian historical fiction', and a trend to return to essentially nineteenth-century themes and structures.
Travels with My Green Man Alex Miller , 2003 single work autobiography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 31 May-1 June 2003; (p. 4-5)
The Solitariness of Alex Miller Peter Pierce , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , May vol. 21 no. 3 2004; (p. 299-311) The article presents an overview of Alex Miller's literary career and development as a writer and examines his six novels published to date.
Cosmopolitan Australians and Colonial Modernity : Alex Miller's Conditions of Faith, Gail Jones's Black Mirror and A.L. McCann's The White Body of Evening Robert Dixon , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 49 no. 2004; (p. 122-137) Robert Dixon says 'In this paper I want to test the proposition that there is a new generation of "cosmopolitan Australians"'.
'Art Is the Windowpane' : Novels of Australian Women and Modernism in Inter-war Europe Paul Genoni , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 2004; (p. 159-172)
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Awards

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Last amended 29 Oct 2024 10:19:36
Subjects:
Settings:
  • c
    Australia,
    c
  • c
    France,
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • c
    Tunisia,
    c
    North Africa, Africa,
  • 1920s
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