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y separately published work icon Under Capricorn single work   novel   historical fiction   romance  
Issue Details: First known date: 1937... 1937 Under Capricorn
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Exhibitions

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Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Under Capricorn Hume Cronyn , 'James Bridie' , Margaret Linden , John Colton , ( dir. Alfred Hitchcock ) 1949 United Kingdom (UK) : Transatlantic Pictures Corporation , 1949 Z1242695 1949 single work film/TV

Set in the colony of New South Wales in the 1830s, this is a woman-centred melodrama set against colonial class divisions and involving two overlapping triangles (husband/wife/outsider and husband/wife/sinister housekeeper). The film is light on suspense but complex in emotional interplay, involving the long take (which precludes strict point of view) in shifting emotional identification intertwined with the guilt of the main characters. Robin Wood has also identified complex intertextual relationships: an early Hitchcock, The Manxman (a class-based triangle); Rebecca (the sinister housekeeper); Vertigo (the role of 'confession' and the reconstruction of the woman's image by the hero); and the stylised psychoanalytical romances Spellbound and Marnie. Along with Notorious and Gaslight, it is central to Ingrid Bergman's canon, in the tension in her persona between the active 'natural' woman and the vulnerable mentally and/or physically debilitated victim. (Source: Libraries Australia)

form y separately published work icon Under Capricorn Tony Morphett , ( dir. Rod Hardy ) South Australia : South Australian Film Corporation , 1984 Z1829149 1984 series - publisher film/TV thriller

This mini-series is an adaptation of Helen Simpson's novel, previously adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in 1949. The narrative traces the domestic life of former convict Samson Flusky and his alcoholic wife Lady Henrietta, and the tensions that creep into their life and marriage when they meet Charles Adare, newly arrived in New South Wales with his uncle, the new governor.

Moran notes, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, that the mini-series was more overtly Australian in focus and feel than the original film, which 'was a noir mystery/romance that happened to have a period setting':

The mini-series is certainly a mystery/romance but it is also part of the Australian historical or period cycle of feature films and mini-series which have recreated the nation's history. Thus this mini-series immediately belongs to a cycle that includes not only such nostalgic quality films as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Irishman, Gallipoli and others, but most especially such mini-series of the early convict settlement as Against the Wind, Sara Dane and For the Term of His Natural Life.

Moran concludes that the mini-series was not an overall success: 'the mini-series, while containing the film noir nuances, moves the narrative firmly in the direction of being both Australian and historical in its concern with the early convict/emancipation phase of Australian settlement, much like Against the Wind and The Timeless Land. There is much detail of settlement life and this fits rather oddly with the psychological drama. One understands the hesitation of the Nine Network in marketing the series.'

Notes

  • Under Capricorn was also produced as a television mini-series in 1983, directed by Rod Hardy.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Varfor Grater Du?
Language: Swedish

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Not Suitable for Children : Alfred Hitchcock Films Helen Simpson's Australia Tanya Dalziell , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 126-132) Inside Story , October 2016;

''Helen Simpson’s Under Capricorn made a decades-long journey from novel to film to TV to DVD. Alfred Hitchcock’s version was a revealing stop-off along the way' 

y separately published work icon Momentous Decade : Society and Thought : Australia, 1838-1848 Norman Bartlett , Canberra : 1976 19373512 1976 single work thesis

'In searching for the origins of the Australian ethos it is tempting to regard convicts and "old hands" as the seedbed of Australian political democracy as well as part of the humus that nourished mateship and egalitarianism. While, as Russel Ward documents in The Australian Legend, many Australian social attitudes data back to convict days, the origin of Australian political democracy followed urban English rather than American or Australian frontier patterns.' (Thesis description)

Round the World 1947 single work column
— Appears in: The Australasian Book News and Literary Journal , September vol. 2 no. 3 1947; (p. 168)
Under Capricorn 1937 single work review
— Appears in: Desiderata , 1 November no. 34 1937; (p. 7-9)

— Review of Under Capricorn Helen Simpson , 1937 single work novel
New Australian Books Frederick T. Macartney , 1937 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 1 December vol. 9 no. 12 1937; (p. 188-189)

— Review of I Find Australia 'William Hatfield' , 1937 single work autobiography ; Under Capricorn Helen Simpson , 1937 single work novel ; Over the Range: Sunshine and Shadow in the Kimberleys Ion L. Idriess , 1937 single work prose
New Australian Books Frederick T. Macartney , 1937 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 1 December vol. 9 no. 12 1937; (p. 188-189)

— Review of I Find Australia 'William Hatfield' , 1937 single work autobiography ; Under Capricorn Helen Simpson , 1937 single work novel ; Over the Range: Sunshine and Shadow in the Kimberleys Ion L. Idriess , 1937 single work prose
Under Capricorn 1937 single work review
— Appears in: Desiderata , 1 November no. 34 1937; (p. 7-9)

— Review of Under Capricorn Helen Simpson , 1937 single work novel
Round the World 1947 single work column
— Appears in: The Australasian Book News and Literary Journal , September vol. 2 no. 3 1947; (p. 168)
Outstanding New Publications and Best Sellers 1937 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 10 November vol. 9 no. 11 1937; (p. 171)
Not Suitable for Children : Alfred Hitchcock Films Helen Simpson's Australia Tanya Dalziell , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 126-132) Inside Story , October 2016;

''Helen Simpson’s Under Capricorn made a decades-long journey from novel to film to TV to DVD. Alfred Hitchcock’s version was a revealing stop-off along the way' 

y separately published work icon Momentous Decade : Society and Thought : Australia, 1838-1848 Norman Bartlett , Canberra : 1976 19373512 1976 single work thesis

'In searching for the origins of the Australian ethos it is tempting to regard convicts and "old hands" as the seedbed of Australian political democracy as well as part of the humus that nourished mateship and egalitarianism. While, as Russel Ward documents in The Australian Legend, many Australian social attitudes data back to convict days, the origin of Australian political democracy followed urban English rather than American or Australian frontier patterns.' (Thesis description)

Last amended 4 Jul 2017 08:24:15
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