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y separately published work icon Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel single work   novel   satire  
  • Author:agent Tom Collins http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/furphy-joseph
Issue Details: First known date: 1905-1906... 1905-1906 Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Rigby's Romance is a revised and expanded version of the original chapter five in the Such is Life typescript (1898).

The narrator, Tom Collins, is on his way from Echuca to Yooringa to fulfil a contract to clear a Riverina run of cattle. Hoping to meet his old friend, Jefferson Rigby, Collins is surprised by an encounter with Rigby's former sweetheart, Kate Vanderdecken, who has come to Australia in search of Rigby. Collins arranges an introduction before heading to the banks of the Murray River to fish for a thirty-pound cod he has heard is in the area. He is joined by the bullockies Steve Thompson and Robert Dixon, characters from Such is Life, and several others: a kangaroo-hunter named Smith; a trapper named Furlong; a farmer named Binney and his brother-in-law, the Methodist minister Harold Lushington; and, eventually, Rigby himself. Like The Buln-buln and the Brolga, Rigby's Romance involves a series of yarns told in different styles about politics, ethics, religion and law. All hinge in some way on failed love affairs, but, as is his way, Rigby's love story about a local German publican soon evolves into a long sermon on Christian socialism, and he forgets about the appointment he has made with Kate Vanderdecken.

Furphy expressed a preference for Rigby's Romance later in life. Like The Buln-buln and the Brolga, it can be read as an independent work. In revision, Furphy changed the narrative in significant ways, particularly in his expansion of Rigby's sermons on state socialism. In other cases, he probably transferred text from the original chapter two to fill in details at the beginning of the novel. And so, despite its independence as a work, Rigby's Romance retains many cross-references to the larger original work, most notably the presence of Tom Collins as an unreliable narrator.

Exhibitions

Adaptations

Rigby's Romance Joseph Furphy , John Derum , 2013 single work drama
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 1 2013;
'This script is an adaptation of the novel Rigby's Romance.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1905
Serialised by: The Barrier Truth New South Wales Political Labor League. Barrier District Assembly , 1898-1908 periodical (3 issues)
      1905-1906 .
      image of person or book cover 6327785725180665325.jpg
      Note/s:
      • Serialised in the Barrier Truth 27 October 1905 - 20 July 1906.
      • The serial was set from a typescript, now lost, that Furphy prepared when revising the original fifth chapter of Such is Life (1898) to produce Rigby's Romance.
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Angus and Robertson , 1946 .
      image of person or book cover 5494246716719777215.jpeg
      Link: 10404380 Sighted: 11/07/2020
      Extent: xv, 262p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Set from clippings of the Barrier Truth serial supplied by Kate Baker.
      • Edited with a foreword by R. G. Howarth
    • Adelaide, South Australia,: Rigby , 1971 .
      image of person or book cover 3887859653601198558.jpeg
      Extent: xv, 262p.p.
      Edition info: Seal Australian Fiction
      Note/s:
      • Introduced by G. W. Turner.
      ISBN: 0851792111

Works about this Work

Interspecies Mateship : Tom Collins and Pup Damien Barlow , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 1 2013;

'This essay examines the representation of dogs, especially Pup in the novels of Joseph Furphy.' (Author's abstract)

'Double Line to the Terminus' : Marriage, Sex, Romance and Joseph Furphy Susan Lever , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 1 2013;
'This article reads Furphy's fiction in the context of his own failed marriage. It notes Furphy's interest in sex and romance, and his insistence on a degree of sexual realism despite the inhibitions of Victorian decorum. Referring to some of the unstated elements in the story of Alf Morris and Molly Cooper and the more ludicrous treatments of sex in Such is Life, and the rape story in Rigby's Romance, the article argues that Furphy contributes to our understanding of sexual behaviour in nineteenth century Australia.' (Author's abstract)
Tom Collins and Work Julian Croft , 1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: The 1890s : Australian Literature and Literary Culture 1996; (p. 210-227)
Joseph Furphy, Such is Life Michael Wilding , 1992 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Radical Tradition : Lawson, Furphy, Stead 1993; (p. 31-58) Studies in Classic Australian Fiction 1997; (p. 109-133)
'Joseph Furphy's Such is Life (1903) opens simply and clearly enough with that memorable, sardonic initial declaration: 'Unemployed at last!’170 The complex reaction of the relief from work, while at the same time the prospect of poverty and hunger; the sense of liberation, while at the same time the hitter reflection that it is only through unemployment that working men and women can ever attain the state of leisure and relaxation available to the upper classes: all this is succinctly implied. There is a lot said but not said, a lot of social observation and
commentary on the economic situation.' (Introduction) 
Rigby's Romance Julian Croft , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Life and Opinions of Tom Collins : A Study of the Works of Joseph Furphy 1991; (p. 216-245)
Rigby's Romance 1921 single work review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 12 November 1921; (p. 3)

— Review of Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel Tom Collins , 1905-1906 single work novel
Untitled 1921 single work review
— Appears in: The Bookfellow , 15 October 1921; (p. 159)

— Review of Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel Tom Collins , 1905-1906 single work novel
Review of Rigby's Romance Lloyd Ross , 1946 single work review
— Appears in: Union Recorder , 13 June 1946; (p. 78)

— Review of Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel Tom Collins , 1905-1906 single work novel
Rigby's Romance Marjorie Barnard , 1947 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Books , vol. 2 no. 3 1947; (p. 67-70)

— Review of Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel Tom Collins , 1905-1906 single work novel
The Furphy We Forget Miles Franklin , 1947 single work review
— Appears in: The Australasian Book News and Library Journal , February vol. 1 no. 8 1947; (p. 354)

— Review of Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel Tom Collins , 1905-1906 single work novel
Rigby's Romance J. V. , 1922 single work criticism
— Appears in: Corroboree : The Journal of the Australian Literature Society , January vol. 1 no. 4 1922; (p. 5-6)
Untitled E. C. Davidson , 1922 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Corroboree : The Journal of the Australian Literature Society , February vol. 1 no. 5 1922; (p. 4)
Joseph Furphy, Such is Life Michael Wilding , 1992 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Radical Tradition : Lawson, Furphy, Stead 1993; (p. 31-58) Studies in Classic Australian Fiction 1997; (p. 109-133)
'Joseph Furphy's Such is Life (1903) opens simply and clearly enough with that memorable, sardonic initial declaration: 'Unemployed at last!’170 The complex reaction of the relief from work, while at the same time the prospect of poverty and hunger; the sense of liberation, while at the same time the hitter reflection that it is only through unemployment that working men and women can ever attain the state of leisure and relaxation available to the upper classes: all this is succinctly implied. There is a lot said but not said, a lot of social observation and
commentary on the economic situation.' (Introduction) 
Rigby's Romance 1921 single work review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 12 November 1921; (p. 3)

— Review of Rigby's Romance : A Made in Australia Novel Tom Collins , 1905-1906 single work novel
The Nervous Nineties John Docker , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Independent Monthly , December-January vol. 2 no. 6 1990-1991; (p. 36-37)
Last amended 11 Jul 2020 11:52:31
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