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y separately published work icon Bettany's Book single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 Bettany's Book
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

This compelling novel, set in Australia and Sudan, spans two generations from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, telling of two Australian sisters who explore their British roots. Thomas Keneally's vibrant characters and vigorous prose bring both eras alive, as he captures the timeless quests, passions and moral dilemmas that unite them. (Source: LibrariesAustralia)

Notes

  • Dedication: To Rory Coverdale, fresh to Australia and the world.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: London,
      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,      :       Doubleday ,       2000 .
      image of person or book cover 3632249905586852772.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 598p.
      Description: illus., port.
      Written as: Tom Keneally
      ISBN: 1864710004 (hbk)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Sceptre ,       2000 .
      image of person or book cover 8082589552328232780.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 599p.
      Written as: Tom Keneally
      ISBN: 0340610956 (hbk)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Sceptre ,       2001 .
      image of person or book cover 198732122959042801.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 598p.
      ISBN: 0340624752 (pbk)
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Doubleday , 2002 .
      image of person or book cover 4895707954987873702.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 598p.
      ISBN: 1864710047 (pbk)
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Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.
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Related Works

Untitled Thomas Keneally , 1999 extract (Bettany's Book)
— Appears in: Overland , Spring no. 156 1999; (p. 52-54)
Lost in a Familiar Setting Thomas Keneally , 2002 extract (Bettany's Book)
— Appears in: The Courier Mail , 2 January 2002; (p. 25)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas Keneally Paul Sharrad , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , November no. 14 2015; (p. 20-27) Although Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.
Identity and Stigmatization Transferred Xiaojin Zhou , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: From Fixity to Fluidity : The Theme of Identity in Thomas Keneally's Fiction 2009; (p. 142-150) 'Keneally never forgets to weave his discussion of the Aboriginal issue into the Anglo search for identity in history, a problem which goes back as early as the beginning of white settlement of Australia. Convicts and the Admiralty soldiers, the earliest settlers on the land, come to Australian “stigmatized”. ' (142)
The Sense of Guilt: Inherited and Imagined Xiaojin Zhou , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: From Fixity to Fluidity : The Theme of Identity in Thomas Keneally's Fiction 2009; (p. 106-118) 'Past crimes not only cripple, on the national scale, the imagination of early white settlers and therefore that of their descendants, but also penetrate the conscious being of the individual, in the form of ancestor heritage and personal memories. Though no less marked by the sense of guilt and by the interaction between past and present, the 95 latter is more personal and palpable in our concern of identity, and more allegorical and tangible in Keneally’s representations. ' (106)
Reversed Nature, Dislocation, and Self-Commissioning Xiaojin Zhou , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: From Fixity to Fluidity : The Theme of Identity in Thomas Keneally's Fiction 2009; (p. 69-77) 'Different from the American Pilgrim Fathers, the early Europeans come to Australia without a dignified purpose. What’s worse, the Australian landscape defies their efforts to find a mission in local context. Everything here is different, alien and unaccountable, thwarting all attempts to subject it to European cognizance and interpretation. Even the most ardent scientist cannot find a proper mode of linguistic expression for the alien landscape, which leads to the disjunction between discourse and place. However, initial efforts are made by early settlers to find themselves a culturally and psychologically sustaining purpose. Self-commissioning takes such various forms as exploration, scientific studies and settlement, all of which are related, in a subtle but tenacious manner, to the British Empire and to their own past. Yet it is easy to put Australian on the map of the world, but it is difficult to subject the new world to the general scheme of the Empire. It simply refuses to be part of it. The wrestling with a troubled identity drives them to missionary activities in the land, which unfortunately further exacerbates the crisis rather than overcoming it, for in doing so, they forsake the sense of belonging “there”, only to find they can hardly belong “here”. ' (69-70)
y separately published work icon Ancestral Narratives: Irish-Australian Identities in History and Fiction Chad Habel , Saarbrucken : VDM Verlag , 2008-2009 Z1664583 2008-2009 single work criticism
A plenitude of story Peter Pierce , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 226 2000; (p. 40)
— Review of Bettany's Book Thomas Keneally , 2000 single work novel
Big Tom James Griffin , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , April vol. 11 no. 3 2001; (p. 40)
— Review of Bettany's Book Thomas Keneally , 2000 single work novel
Knot for the Faint-Hearted M. Jones , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18 November 2000; (p. 13)
— Review of Bettany's Book Thomas Keneally , 2000 single work novel
Review Cath Kenneally , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Weekend Australian , 2-3 December 2000; (p. 10)
— Review of Bettany's Book Thomas Keneally , 2000 single work novel
Beyond All Reach Michael Kerrigan , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Times Literary Supplement , 3 November no. 5092 2000; (p. 22)
— Review of Bettany's Book Thomas Keneally , 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.
y separately published work icon Ancestral Narratives: Irish-Australian Identities in History and Fiction Chad Habel , Saarbrucken : VDM Verlag , 2008-2009 Z1664583 2008-2009 single work criticism
Keneally Embraces His Feminine Side David Gilchrist , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 26 November 2000; (p. 44)
Visionaries Past & Present Christopher Bantick , 2000 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Saturday Mercury , 16 December 2000; (p. 42)
Writer in Search of Beauty Wayne Smith , 2000 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 11 November 2000; (p. 5)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (20)
Last amended 13 Sep 2019 09:35:02
Subjects:
Settings:
  • c
    Australia,
    c
  • c
    Sudan,
    c
    North Africa, Africa,
  • 1900-1999
  • 1800-1899
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