person or book cover
y separately published work icon Gossip from the Forest single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 1975... 1975 Gossip from the Forest
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In 1918 at Compiègne, France, a group of intractable men negotiate to forge the armistice ending World War I. The Allies press for total submission; the Germans angle for compromise. So they talk on and on, while the guns roar and men die.'

(Source: Amazon.com)

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , ( dir. Brian Gibson ) United Kingdom (UK) : Granada , 1979 Z547228 1979 single work film/TV

Gossip from the Forest is a concentrated fictional account of the peace talks that took place in Compiegne Forest in November 1918. The story focuses on the highest-ranking German negotiator, liberal pacifist Mattias Erzberger. According to the New York Times Book Review's Paul Fussell, the novel version 'is a study of the profoundly civilian and pacific sensibility beleaguered by crude power.... it is absorbing, and as history it achieves the kind of significance earned only by sympathy acting on deep knowledge.'

The film, which screened on the 29 July 1979, was part of a British television series called Screenplay, a series of discrete films by British script-writers.

y separately published work icon Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , 1983 Sydney : NSW Building Society Sydney Theatre Company , 1983 18373745 1983 single work drama In 1918 at Compiègne, France, a group of men meet to wrangle an armistice on which neither wants to capitulate.

Notes

  • Dedication: To My Father.
  • Author's note: In the season in which this book was written, the French government persisted in exploding nuclear devices above the ocean where my children swim.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
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      England,
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      United Kingdom (UK),
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      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Sydney, New South Wales,: Collins ,
      1975 .
      person or book cover
      Extent: 222p.
      ISBN: 0002222418
    • London,
      c
      England,
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      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Fontana ,
      1978 .
      image of person or book cover 6803940036759234878.jpg
      Extent: 224p.
      ISBN: 0006147933 (pbk)
    • Sevenoaks, Kent,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Coronet ,
      1984 .
      image of person or book cover 7332155453338369541.jpg
      Extent: 236p.
      ISBN: 0340354747 (pbk)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Sceptre ,
      1988 .
      image of person or book cover 4588547552316202953.jpg
      Extent: 236p.
      Reprinted: 2001
      ISBN: 0340431040 (pbk)
Alternative title: Koniec wielkiej wojny
Language: Polish
    • Warsaw,
      c
      Poland,
      c
      Eastern Europe, Europe,
      :
      Da Capo ,
      1996 .
      image of person or book cover 974119636002751398.jpg
      Extent: 254p.
      ISBN: 837157035X

Works about this Work

Nostalgia for the Nation? The First World War in Australian Novels of the 1970s and 1980s Christina Spittel , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Great War in Post-Memory Literature and Film 2014; (p. 255-272)
Traduit de l’américain : Thomas Keneally and the Mechanics of an International Career David Carter , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Book History , vol. 16 no. 2013; (p. 364-386)

'Internationally, Thomas Keneally is one of Australia’s most successful authors, whether in terms of critical reception, book sales, or author profile. He is probably best known as the author of Schindler’s List from 1982—Schindler’s Ark in Britain and Australasia—even if his fame in this regard has been somewhat obscured by Stephen Spielberg’s multi-Oscar-winning movie of 1993. The story of how Keneally came to write this book and its subsequent success is one of the more remarkable episodes in Australian book history, and of course it is by no means confined to Australia, its point of origin only in a very qualified sense. Published simultaneously in London, New York, and Sydney, Schindler’s List appeared in at least eight different English-language and fourteen foreign-language editions even before the release of Spielberg’s movie. It won the Booker Prize for 1982, the first by an Australian novelist, although Keneally had already been short-listed for the award on three occasions. Across the Atlantic, it was one of the New York Times ’ Best Books of 1982, and in the following year the winner of the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize. The movie’s success meant new English and American editions together with a dozen or so translations in 1994 alone, including Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, and Catalan versions. New Czech and Marathi editions appeared as recently as 2009.' (Author's introduction)

Gossip from Which Forest? Tom Keneally, History, Culture and Environment Paul Sharrad , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Remapping the Future : History, Culture and Environment in Australia and India 2013; (p. 80-93)
Interpodes : Poland, Tom Keneally and Australian Literary History Paul Sharrad , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture , vol. 2 no. 2 2012; (p. 169-179)

'This article is framed by a wider interest in how literary careers are made: what mechanisms other than the personal/biographical and the text-centred evaluations of scholars influence a writer's choices in presisting in building a succession of works that are both varied and yet form a consistently recognizable 'brand'.

Translation is one element in the wider network of 'machinery' that makes modern literary publishing. It is a marker of success that might well keep authors going despite lack of sales or negative reviews at home. Translation rights can provide useful supplementary funds to sustain a writer's output. Access to new markets overseas might also inspire interest in countries and topics other than their usual focus or the demands of the home market.

The Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally achieved a critical regard for fictions of Australian history within a nationalist cultural resurgence, but to make a living as a writer he had to keep one eye on overseas markets as well. While his work on European topics has not always been celebrated at home, he has continued to write about them and to find readers in languages other than English.

Poland features in a number of Keneally books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally's Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler's Ark filmed as Schindler's List.' [Author's abstract]

y separately published work icon Australian Melodramas : Thomas Keneally's Fiction Peter Pierce , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1995 Z565009 1995 single work criticism The first comprehensive critical study of Keneally's work. It concentrates on his novels, but also covers plays and non-fiction, and analyses the academic reception of Keneally's work.
Saint Joan Exorcised Helen Frizell , 1974 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16 November 1974; (p. 11)

— Review of Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , 1975 single work novel ; Blood Red, Sister Rose Thomas Keneally , 1974 single work novel
Untitled R. F. Brissenden , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 29 November 1975; (p. 31)

— Review of Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , 1975 single work novel
Untitled D. R. Burns , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: Nation Review , 5-11 December 1975; (p. 210)

— Review of Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , 1975 single work novel
Untitled A. Duchene , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 19 September 1975; (p. 1041)

— Review of Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , 1975 single work novel
Untitled Katharine England , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 29 November 1975; (p. 24)

— Review of Gossip from the Forest Thomas Keneally , 1975 single work novel
Interpodes : Poland, Tom Keneally and Australian Literary History Paul Sharrad , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture , vol. 2 no. 2 2012; (p. 169-179)

'This article is framed by a wider interest in how literary careers are made: what mechanisms other than the personal/biographical and the text-centred evaluations of scholars influence a writer's choices in presisting in building a succession of works that are both varied and yet form a consistently recognizable 'brand'.

Translation is one element in the wider network of 'machinery' that makes modern literary publishing. It is a marker of success that might well keep authors going despite lack of sales or negative reviews at home. Translation rights can provide useful supplementary funds to sustain a writer's output. Access to new markets overseas might also inspire interest in countries and topics other than their usual focus or the demands of the home market.

The Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally achieved a critical regard for fictions of Australian history within a nationalist cultural resurgence, but to make a living as a writer he had to keep one eye on overseas markets as well. While his work on European topics has not always been celebrated at home, he has continued to write about them and to find readers in languages other than English.

Poland features in a number of Keneally books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally's Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler's Ark filmed as Schindler's List.' [Author's abstract]

`White Ravens' in a World of Violence : German Connections in Thomas Keneally's Fiction Irmtraud Petersson , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 14 no. 2 1989; (p. 160-173)
Thomas Keneally Candida Baker (interviewer), 1987 single work biography interview
— Appears in: Yacker 2 : Australian Writers Talk About Their Work 1987; (p. 116-142)
Gossip and History in the Novels of Brian Penton and Thomas Keneally Patrick Buckridge , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 14 no. 4 1990; (p. 436-449)
Gossip from the Forest Charles H. Pullen , 1987 single work criticism
— Appears in: Masterplots II : British and Commonwealth Fiction Series 1987; (p. 655-659)
Last amended 2 Dec 2019 13:43:59
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  • 1918
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