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Includes
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1y
The Cub : Six Months in His Life : A Story in War-Time
London
Melbourne
:
Ward, Lock
,
1915
Z169216
1915
single work
novel
young adult
war literature
'Miss Ethel Turner has written a war-time story of very considerable merit and has chosen as was to be expected to develop the greater portion of the action in Australia, but the story is none the less a war-time story on that account. The tale is happily conceived and delightfully told, and there is not an uninteresting page in the book. It opens in Brussels, at the beginning of the war, when a young English girl, after some thrilling adventures, rescues a little Belgian girl—Josette—from a cruel fate. The Eng- lish girl, Brigid Lindsay, makes the ac- quaintance of the Calthrops, a wealthy Australian family, the younger son of which is the Cub of the title. The scene and the actors shift to Australia, and we are given a number of pictures of Australian patriotic activities in war time. Much againist his mother's wish, the elder of the Calthrop boys volunteers for active service, and falls in action, and the last chapter closes with the departure of the Cub to fill his fallen brother's place. The whole interest centres round the Cub, who is a youth of unusual mental equipment, and possesses ideas of his own on some pressing social and eco- nomnic problems, which are not of conven- tional type. He is in consequence regarded by his friends as "queer." Brigid is a fitting foil to the Cub and is in some respects quite as unconventional.'
Source:
'Literature: A War-time Story', The West Australian, 16 December 1915, p.5. (Via Trove Australia)
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2y
Captain Cub
London
Melbourne
:
Ward, Lock
,
1917
Z377611
1917
single work
novel
young adult
'The Cub goes to Gallipoli and speedily wins promotion, being the youngest captain in the forces. The life there is well depicted, and so is the great evacuation. The main theme of the book, however, is the love story of the Cub and Brigid, which is charming and idyllic, and entirely unlike the modern style'.
Source:
'Captain Cub' [review], The World's News, 3 November 1917, p.29. (Via Trove Australia)
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3y
Brigid and the Cub
London
Melbourne
:
Ward, Lock
,
1919
Z960599
1919
single work
novel
young adult
'Another story of the lovers whose history is now forming a series of readable romances. [...] They have not as yet reached the end every reader has in view for them, and Brigid is in Paris for most of the time, where the Cub spends such leave as he can get. The end of the section comes in England, and is brought about by the news of the armistice and the admission thereby of the Allies' victory.'
Source:
'Brigid and the Cub' [review], The World's News, 27 December 1919, p.29. (Via Trove Australia)
Works about this Work
-
“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction) -
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66) 'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47) -
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176). -
y
War, Women and the Bush : The Novels of Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2009
Z962022
1978
single work
criticism
Comments on the portrayal of women, men and the bush in the novels of Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner which were set during World War I. Walker draws particular attention to the disadvantages of being a woman and the qualities a woman should possess as portrayed in these novels. In their general behaviour, the characters of both sexes in the novels are permitted to be 'mildly unconventional' provided they still abide by the major social conventions of 'loyalty, decency [and] fair play'. Walker also points out the manner in which the bush is clearly depicted as a superior living environment, 'enhancing good health and wholesome attitudes to authority' and negating the 'socially harmful behaviour' engendered by life in the city.
-
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176). -
Britishness and Australian Popular Fiction : From the Mid-Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 46-66) 'The analysis offered here is [...], a panoptic perspective of the tangled skeins of literary imagination and imitation, gender and genre requirements, editorial control, market considerations and the sheer economics of the international book trade that knotted Australian popular literature into the cultural and economic fabric of the British empire.' (47) -
y
War, Women and the Bush : The Novels of Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2009
Z962022
1978
single work
criticism
Comments on the portrayal of women, men and the bush in the novels of Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner which were set during World War I. Walker draws particular attention to the disadvantages of being a woman and the qualities a woman should possess as portrayed in these novels. In their general behaviour, the characters of both sexes in the novels are permitted to be 'mildly unconventional' provided they still abide by the major social conventions of 'loyalty, decency [and] fair play'. Walker also points out the manner in which the bush is clearly depicted as a superior living environment, 'enhancing good health and wholesome attitudes to authority' and negating the 'socially harmful behaviour' engendered by life in the city.
-
“Whichever and Whatever It Was” : Rendering War and Peace in Australian WWI Narratives
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 75 no. 3 2016; 'Australian narratives of World War I (WWI) reflect a different but characteristic commemoration of that event. While the best (to modern eyes) novels of WWI present a comprehensive picture of disillusionment, futility and waste, Australian stories proffer the view that the war was worthwhile, and that the sacrifices of the Anzacs were honourable and justified. In placing WWI as a salient marker denoting the origin of the nation, Australian texts diverge from the revered WWI canon’s convincing portrayal of the war as a symbol of civilisation’s demise. Even accepting this divergence, however, there is much in Australian narratives that amplifies the memorialisation of the war in Australian society.' (Introduction)
