y separately published work icon The Advancement of Spencer Button single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1950... 1950 The Advancement of Spencer Button
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'Bringing all the power and richness of his tale as a short story writer to this, his first novel, Brian James creates an unforgettable picture of a man who always did the right thing.

Spencer Button is a hero who completely lacks heroic qualities. At heart he is romantic and likes to cut a good figure; but he is conventional, careful and ambitious, and timidity and circumstance relentlessly mould him. The chief enemy to his development as a human being is, in fact, the Public Service - an ogre he has served since boyhood; and the assiduity with which he studies his advancement in the Department destroys him as a man. For Spencer Button is a State school teacher.

Iron humour and a fine sense of the ridiculous both make and heighten the tragedy that is Spencer Button. This is the unspectacular tragedy of everyday life, infinitely moving when realized. But upper-most is the irresistible humour of characters like Auntie May and Uncle Fred, of episodes like the inspection of Selkirk school and the coming of the new music master to Simmons Street.

Brian James has a penetrating grasp of character and an astonishing range of mood. Off-setting portraits of exquisite absurdity are scenes that are masterly in their macabre pathos: The downfall of Winnie Ogg, the object of Spencer's first romance; the disintegration of Mr Foll who sacrifices himself to his son's career. Spencer's courtship of Susie, their marriage and its formal banality, his discovery of the warmth and vitality he has missed - these are so acutely drawn as to be almost painful in their reality.

Pedagogic grievances and ambitions, jealousies and snobberies, eternal and never-changing, are shown against a panorama of Australian life from the nineties to the present day. It is an impressive picture of infinite variety, an arresting and challenging story that never fails as entertainment.' (Publisher's blurb)

Notes

  • Dedication: To Norman Lindsay

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • North Ryde, Ryde - Gladesville - Hunters Hill area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,: Pacific Books , 1974 .
      Series: Pacific Books Angus and Robertson (publisher), 1961 series - publisher The establishment of this paperback imprint of Angus Robertson was spearheaded by Beatrice Davis. It started with print runs of 20,000 in 1961 (Paper Empires: History of Book in Australia, 18).This paperback series, published by Angus and Robertson, contains both numbered and unnumbered volumes.

Works about this Work

Folklore and Schools : The View from the Desk James Robert Smith , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Folklore , November no. 23 2008; (p. 188-195)
‘Over the last fifty years Children’s Folklore has established itself as a serious subject for study. From the beginning, schools have been seen as rich sites for the transmission of – and thus the recording of – Children’s Folklore.’ (p. 188)
Brian James or John Tierney? The Teacher as Writer, or the Writer as Teacher? John Ramsland , 1993 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , December no. 39 1993; (p. 21-36)
The Art of Brian James Clement Semmler , 1972 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Art of Brian James and Other Essays on Australian Literature 1972; (p. 3-62)
Babbitt and Button Norman Lindsay , 1951 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 24 January vol. 72 no. 3702 1951; (p. 2)
Three Australian Novelists George Farwell , 1951 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Week-End Review , 12 January vol. 1 no. 20 1951; (p. 305, 310)

— Review of The Advancement of Spencer Button Brian James , 1950 single work novel ; The League of the Lord Roy Bridges , 1950 single work novel ; Winged Seeds Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1950 single work novel
A New Novel 1950 single work review
— Appears in: Astrovert , December no. 1 1950; (p. 5)

— Review of The Advancement of Spencer Button Brian James , 1950 single work novel
Comparing the Critics 1951 single work review
— Appears in: The Austrovert , Winter no. 3 1951; (p. 5)

— Review of The Advancement of Spencer Button Brian James , 1950 single work novel
Pedagogy, Pearl and Plain Ken Levis , 1951 single work review
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 12 no. 4 1951; (p. 226-227)

— Review of The Advancement of Spencer Button Brian James , 1950 single work novel
Three Australian Novelists George Farwell , 1951 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Week-End Review , 12 January vol. 1 no. 20 1951; (p. 305, 310)

— Review of The Advancement of Spencer Button Brian James , 1950 single work novel ; The League of the Lord Roy Bridges , 1950 single work novel ; Winged Seeds Katharine Susannah Prichard , 1950 single work novel
Folklore and Schools : The View from the Desk James Robert Smith , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Folklore , November no. 23 2008; (p. 188-195)
‘Over the last fifty years Children’s Folklore has established itself as a serious subject for study. From the beginning, schools have been seen as rich sites for the transmission of – and thus the recording of – Children’s Folklore.’ (p. 188)
Babbitt and Button Norman Lindsay , 1951 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 24 January vol. 72 no. 3702 1951; (p. 2)
The Art of Brian James Clement Semmler , 1972 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Art of Brian James and Other Essays on Australian Literature 1972; (p. 3-62)
Brian James or John Tierney? The Teacher as Writer, or the Writer as Teacher? John Ramsland , 1993 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , December no. 39 1993; (p. 21-36)
Spencer Button 1951 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 3 January vol. 72 no. 3699 1951; (p. 2)
Last amended 12 Nov 2009 08:48:13
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