y separately published work icon Where the Plain Begins single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1933... 1933 Where the Plain Begins
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The writer has tried to show, as well as his meagre skill allows, and with the aid of a series of characters such as may be found anywhere, something of the life of a rather unprogressive community, hidden away among the western ranges.' Author's Preface. Where the Plain Begins, 1933, records similar happenings among a subnormal group on the central tableland of New South Wales. Truran has endeavoured to interpret some phases of Australian rural life that contrast with the cultural circumstances of the squatter and independent farmer. But he overdoes the use of the vernacular and treats his subnormals as an isolated community. His skilful picturings of scenic backgrounds would be more in keeping with a greater variety in ccharacterization. Truran so makes the 'Macdonald' River a stream of memory that one desires from his pen a descriptive work on the Australian bush. (E. Morris Miller Australian Literature From Its Beginnings to 1935 (1940): 786).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Angus and Robertson , 1933 .
      Extent: 283p.
      Note/s:
      • Dedication: To those who imagine that they recognize themselves in these pages.
      • Author's Preface: Lest the writer should be accused of using too many characters in this book, he ventures to suggest that one who seeks to reproduce the likeness of a whole countryside must paint on a broad canvas and with many colours, for such an impression cannot readily be created by the aid of half a dozen characters in a drawing-room.

        Conroy's Flat, or something very like it, exists within a few miles of a well-known country town in western new South Wales, and probably its prototypes are to be found elsewhere. The picture is not consciously exaggerated, neither is it claimed to be typical of the country. The writer has only tried to show, as well as his meagre skill allows, and with the aid of a series of characters such as may be found anywhere, something of the life of a rather unprogressive community, hidden away among the western ranges. If the picture be not altogether pleasing, it is none the less true to life. John Truran.

      • Includes 'A Selection From the Publications of Angus and Robertson Limited'. (24p.)

Works about this Work

A Reader's Notebook Nettie Palmer , 1933 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 14 October vol. 5 no. 10 1933; (p. 158-159)

— Review of Flesh in Armour : A Novel Leonard Mann , 1932 single work novel ; The Brooks of Morning : Nature and Reflective Essays Donald MacDonald , 1933 selected work prose ; Where the Plain Begins John William Truran , 1933 single work novel ; The Long Beaches and Other South Sea Stories Beatrice Grimshaw , 1933 selected work short story ; Here Comes the King Philip Lindsay , 1933 single work novel
A Reader's Notebook Nettie Palmer , 1933 single work review
— Appears in: All About Books , 14 October vol. 5 no. 10 1933; (p. 158-159)

— Review of Flesh in Armour : A Novel Leonard Mann , 1932 single work novel ; The Brooks of Morning : Nature and Reflective Essays Donald MacDonald , 1933 selected work prose ; Where the Plain Begins John William Truran , 1933 single work novel ; The Long Beaches and Other South Sea Stories Beatrice Grimshaw , 1933 selected work short story ; Here Comes the King Philip Lindsay , 1933 single work novel
Last amended 1 Jul 2008 13:41:08
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