Is part of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1917 series - author novel
Issue Details: First known date: 1925... 1925 The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Heinemann ,
      1925 .
      Extent: 345p.
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      W. W. Norton ,
      1930 .
      Alternative title: The Way Home
      Extent: 321p.
      Reprinted: 1962
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Fortunes of Richard Mahony : Comprising Australia Felix, The Way Home, Ultima Thule Henry Handel Richardson , London : Heinemann , 1930 Z472111 1930 selected work novel historical fiction

    The Fortunes of Richard Mahony was 'first published as a sequence. Australia Felix, the first volume, which covers twelve years of Richard Mahony’s life from the early 1850s, was published in 1917; The Way Home, which deals with his subsequent eight years, appeared in 1925; and Ultima Thule, the final volume covering his last four years, in 1929. The novel was first published as a trilogy in 1930.'

    Australia Felix 'begins the story of Richard Mahony, a 28-year-old medical graduate of Edinburgh University and now the keeper of a general store in Ballarat'. Part one of the novel 'follows Mahony’s career until his marriage; the second part deals with the Eureka Stockade, the growth of the varied society of Ballarat and legal hearing in Melbourne'. It 'concludes with Mahony’s decision to start a practice in Ballarat instead of returning to England'. In parts three and four, 'Richardson extends her panoramic picture of a dynamic colonial society in which individuals are subject to great reversals or advances of fortune'.

    The Way Home begins with Mahony’s 'arrival in England and concludes with his final, second return to Australia, as a ruined man. In the intervening years he grows disillusioned with English society, returns to Australia to find his investments have made him suddenly rich, attempts to settle into the wealthy community of Melbourne and becomes the father of three children'. His sojourn in England leads to the discovery that he is uncomfortable with the ‘offensive and cramping’ English social hierarchy.

    Ultima Thule picks up the story with Mahony’s 'return to Australia, his attempts to establish himself as a medical practitioner, first in Melbourne and then at Barambogie, a small town in northern Victoria'. When Mahony’s skills as a doctor as increasingly questioned, the family moves to the coast and later to Gymgurra where Mahony’s wife, Mary, 'secures a position as postmistress'. Mahony is moved to a private nursing home, then to a government asylum and finally returns home. He is 'devotedly cared by Mary, until paralysis incapacitates his body. After his death he is buried in the local cemetery, within sound of the sea'.

    Source: The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. 2nd. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994: 294-295.

    Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012
    pg. 385-657
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Henry Handel Richardson Collection Henry Handel Richardson , Australia : Transport Publishing , 2017 27517799 2017 selected work novel

    'Henry Handel Richardson was the pen name of Australia Author, Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (3 January 1870 - 20 March 1946). This collection comprises all her Short Stories and 5 of her novels, including all three novels from her famous trilogy "The Fortunes of Richard Mahony" which details the slow decline, of a successful Australian physician and businessman and the effect this has on his family.' (Publication summary)

    Australia : Transport Publishing , 2017
Notes:
When preparing the Richard Mahony trilogy for publication by Heinemann in the omnibus edition, Richardson significantly revised each novel to remove repetition and improve narrative unity. In this process, around 12,000 words were cut from Australia Felix and thousands of changes were made to the other volumes. (The Letters, vol.2, p. 171.)
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Fortunes of Richard Mahony : Comprising Australia Felix, The Way Home, Ultima Thule Henry Handel Richardson , London : Heinemann , 1930 Z472111 1930 selected work novel historical fiction

    The Fortunes of Richard Mahony was 'first published as a sequence. Australia Felix, the first volume, which covers twelve years of Richard Mahony’s life from the early 1850s, was published in 1917; The Way Home, which deals with his subsequent eight years, appeared in 1925; and Ultima Thule, the final volume covering his last four years, in 1929. The novel was first published as a trilogy in 1930.'

    Australia Felix 'begins the story of Richard Mahony, a 28-year-old medical graduate of Edinburgh University and now the keeper of a general store in Ballarat'. Part one of the novel 'follows Mahony’s career until his marriage; the second part deals with the Eureka Stockade, the growth of the varied society of Ballarat and legal hearing in Melbourne'. It 'concludes with Mahony’s decision to start a practice in Ballarat instead of returning to England'. In parts three and four, 'Richardson extends her panoramic picture of a dynamic colonial society in which individuals are subject to great reversals or advances of fortune'.

    The Way Home begins with Mahony’s 'arrival in England and concludes with his final, second return to Australia, as a ruined man. In the intervening years he grows disillusioned with English society, returns to Australia to find his investments have made him suddenly rich, attempts to settle into the wealthy community of Melbourne and becomes the father of three children'. His sojourn in England leads to the discovery that he is uncomfortable with the ‘offensive and cramping’ English social hierarchy.

    Ultima Thule picks up the story with Mahony’s 'return to Australia, his attempts to establish himself as a medical practitioner, first in Melbourne and then at Barambogie, a small town in northern Victoria'. When Mahony’s skills as a doctor as increasingly questioned, the family moves to the coast and later to Gymgurra where Mahony’s wife, Mary, 'secures a position as postmistress'. Mahony is moved to a private nursing home, then to a government asylum and finally returns home. He is 'devotedly cared by Mary, until paralysis incapacitates his body. After his death he is buried in the local cemetery, within sound of the sea'.

    Source: The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. 2nd. ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994: 294-295.

    London : Heinemann , 1930
    pg. 409-696
    Note: Omnibus editions of the series were also published and reprinted by Norton and Penguin. Follow the link to the omnibus edition for further details.
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1971 .
      Extent: 269p.
      Reprinted: 1978
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by Leonie Kramer.
    • Harmondsworth, Middlesex,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Penguin Books ,
      1987 .
      Extent: xxii, 269 p.p.
      ISBN: 0140033408

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

Etty and Nettie : When Nettie Palmer Visited Henry Handel Richardson Brenda Niall , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 348 2013; (p. 28-35)
The Dear Old Mother Country : Richardson's the Way Home and Stead's For Love Alone Peter Morton , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011; (p. 133-163)
y separately published work icon Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 Peter Morton , New York (City) : Palgrave Macmillan , 2011 Z1826218 2011 single work criticism

'Long before the post-WWII migration, over one hundred Australian writers left their homeland to seek fame and fortune in London. Some made little mark despite their arduous efforts; some made a tolerable living; a few, like Martin Boyd, H.H. Richardson and Christina Stead, actually achieved permanent fame. Lusting for London analyses how these writers reacted to their new surroundings—in both their autobiographical writings and their creative work. With wit and rigor, Peter Morton studies the expatriate experience and reveals the ways in which the loss of these expatriates affected the evolving literary culture of Australia' (Publisher blurb).

Contents: Issues of Definition and Evidence; Sailing for El Dorado: Going Home in the Literary Imagination; A Gout of Bile: Metic and Immigrant Expatriates; The Aroma of the Past: in Antipodean London; Drawing off the Rich Cream: The Struggle in London; Who Are You? No One: The Hacking Journalist in London; The Dear Old Mother Country: Richardson's The Way Home and Stead's For Love Alone; Always the Feeling of Australia in the Air: Martin Boyd's Lucinda Brayford; A Leaven of Venturesome Minds: Literary Expatriates and Australian Culture; No More Pap from the Teats of London: From Expatriation toTtransnationalism; Conclusion: A Padded Cell in Wagga Wagga.

Constructing the Metropolitan Homeland : The Literatures of the White Settler Societies of New Zealand and Australia Janet Wilson , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas 2009; (p. 125-145)
The Great Way Home : A Great Australian Novel Norman Bartlett , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australians are Different 1988; (p. 29-33)
Untitled Franziska , 1925 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Woman's Mirror , 30 June vol. 1 no. 32 1925; (p. 47)

— Review of The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1925 single work novel
Untitled Franziska , 1925 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian Woman's Mirror , 22 September vol. 1 no. 44 1925; (p. 24)

— Review of The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1925 single work novel
Untitled 1925 single work review
— Appears in: Times Literary Supplement , 11 June 1925; (p. 398)

— Review of The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1925 single work novel
The Mahony's Middle Period 1930 single work review
— Appears in: Christian Science Monitor (Boston) , 19 April 1930; (p. 12)

— Review of The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1925 single work novel
Human Being Realized Gertrude Diamant , 1930 single work review
— Appears in: World , 27 April 1930; (p. 11)

— Review of The Way Home: Being the Second Part of the Chronicle of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson , 1925 single work novel
Constructing the Metropolitan Homeland : The Literatures of the White Settler Societies of New Zealand and Australia Janet Wilson , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas 2009; (p. 125-145)
y separately published work icon Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 Peter Morton , New York (City) : Palgrave Macmillan , 2011 Z1826218 2011 single work criticism

'Long before the post-WWII migration, over one hundred Australian writers left their homeland to seek fame and fortune in London. Some made little mark despite their arduous efforts; some made a tolerable living; a few, like Martin Boyd, H.H. Richardson and Christina Stead, actually achieved permanent fame. Lusting for London analyses how these writers reacted to their new surroundings—in both their autobiographical writings and their creative work. With wit and rigor, Peter Morton studies the expatriate experience and reveals the ways in which the loss of these expatriates affected the evolving literary culture of Australia' (Publisher blurb).

Contents: Issues of Definition and Evidence; Sailing for El Dorado: Going Home in the Literary Imagination; A Gout of Bile: Metic and Immigrant Expatriates; The Aroma of the Past: in Antipodean London; Drawing off the Rich Cream: The Struggle in London; Who Are You? No One: The Hacking Journalist in London; The Dear Old Mother Country: Richardson's The Way Home and Stead's For Love Alone; Always the Feeling of Australia in the Air: Martin Boyd's Lucinda Brayford; A Leaven of Venturesome Minds: Literary Expatriates and Australian Culture; No More Pap from the Teats of London: From Expatriation toTtransnationalism; Conclusion: A Padded Cell in Wagga Wagga.

The Dear Old Mother Country : Richardson's the Way Home and Stead's For Love Alone Peter Morton , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lusting for London : Australian Expatriate Writers at the Hub of Empire, 1870-1950 2011; (p. 133-163)
Etty and Nettie : When Nettie Palmer Visited Henry Handel Richardson Brenda Niall , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 348 2013; (p. 28-35)
The Great Way Home : A Great Australian Novel Norman Bartlett , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australians are Different 1988; (p. 29-33)
Last amended 15 Feb 2024 13:03:42
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