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y separately published work icon The Idea of Perfection single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1999... 1999 The Idea of Perfection
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Set in the eccentric backwater of Karakarook, New South Wales, this is the story of Douglas Cheeseman, a shy and clumsy engineer who meets Harley Savage, a woman who is known for being rather large and abrupt. Harley Savage is a plain, rawboned woman, a part-time museum curator and quilting expert with three failed marriages and a heart condition. Douglas Cheeseman is a shy, gawky engineer with jug-handle ears, one marriage gone sour, and a crippling lack of physical courage. Seeming to be incompetent was something Douglas did to protect himself, just as having a "dangerous streak" served the same purpose for Harley. Douglas is there to pull down a quaint old bridge and Harley aims to foster heritage. They are clearly on a collision course - but when they meet they are unaware that something unexpected is going to happen. (Source: Trove)

 

Exhibitions

18388342
18387981

Notes

  • Dedication: For Tom and for Alice with love
  • Epigraph: 'An arch is two weaknesses which together make a strength.' - Leonardo da Vinci
  • Listed in The New York Times Book Review's list of Notable Books for 2002.

Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,:Text Publishing , 2014 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Introduction, Neil Armfield , essay

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • South Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Picador , 1999 .
      image of person or book cover 515165555974485661.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 401p.
      Reprinted: 2000
      ISBN: 0330361775, 0330362062
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      1999 .
      image of person or book cover 5796811973146498219.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 401p.
      Reprinted: 2000
      ISBN: 0330392611
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Viking ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 3908480156905867022.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 401p.
      ISBN: 0670030805 (acid-free paper)
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 116685026607812055.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 416p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 22 October 2014

      ISBN: 9781922182470
      Series: y separately published work icon Text Classics Text Publishing (publisher), Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012- Z1851461 2012 series - publisher novel 'Great books by great Australian storytellers.' (Text website.)
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 5699966586930371270.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published October 2017.

      ISBN: 9781509823420, 1509823425
Alternative title: Dromen van volmaaktheid
Language: Dutch
    • Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Arena ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 7637431288581847513.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 382p.
      ISBN: 9069744414

Other Formats

  • Also braille, sound recording.

Works about this Work

The Australian Reifungsroman : Reading Women’s Ageing in Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection and Dorothy Hewett’s Neap Tide Yuanhang Liu , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature , September vol. 58 no. 3 2023; (p. 677-691)

'Women’s ageing processes raise important questions about the relationship between the body, the self, and society, but this topic has been widely ignored in Australian literature. The Australian Reifungsroman, through nuanced articulations of ageing women’s experiences of being doubly othered, shows itself to be a critical discourse that helps to break the cultural silence accorded to ageing women. This article aims to acknowledge the existence of the Reifungsroman in Australian literature while addressing questions around how this genre is employed in the Australian context, in order to actively engage with the topic of women’s ageing. Drawing on literary gerontology, this article examines Australian novelist Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection (2000) and Dorothy Hewett’s Neap Tide (1999) from a feminist perspective, focusing on the literary representations of ageing women offered by these novels. In so doing, this article contends that the Australian Reifungsroman unsettles the dominant ideas about women’s ageing as negative and declining. Indeed, narratives such as these help to articulate ageing women’s agency by reconstructing new images of older womanhood.' (Publication abstract)

The Novel Road to the Global South : Australian Fiction, International Exposure and the Transnational Politics of Disadvantage Sascha Morrell , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel 2023;
y separately published work icon Texts and Textiles : Affect, Synaesthesia and Metaphor in Fiction Diana Mary Eva Thomas , Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Press , 2017 11791282 2017 multi chapter work criticism

'This study shows how fiction that makes use of textiles as an essential element utilizes synaesthetic writing and synaesthetic metaphor to create an affective link to, and response in, the reader. These links and responses are examined using affect theory from Silvan Tomkins and Brian Massumi and work on synaesthesia by Richard Cytowic, Lawrence Marks, and V.S. Ramachandran, among others. Synaesthetic writing, including synaesthetic metaphors, has been explored in poetry since the 1920s and, more recently, in fiction, but these studies have been general in nature. By narrowing the field of investigation to those novels that specifically employ three types of hand-crafted textiles (quilt-making, knitting and embroidery), the book isolates how these textiles are used in fiction. The combination of synaesthesia, memory, metaphor and, particularly, synaesthetic metaphor in fiction with textiles in the text of the case studies selected, shows how these are used to create affect in readers, enhancing their engagement in the story.

'The work is framed within the context of the history of textile production and the use of textiles in fiction internationally, but concentrates on Australian authors who have used textiles in their writing. The decision to focus on Australian authors was taken in light of the quality and depth of the writing of textile fiction produced in Australia between 1980 and 2005 in the three categories of hand-crafted textiles – quilt-making, knitting and embroidery. The texts chosen for intensive study are: Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection (1999, quilting); Marele Day’s Lambs of God (1997, knitting) and Anne Bartlett’s Knitting (2005, knitting); Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra by the River (1978, embroidery) and Marion Halligan’s Spider Cup (1990, embroidery).' (Publication summary)

Introduction Neil Armfield , 2014 essay
— Appears in: The Idea of Perfection 2014;
Constructions of Nation and Gender in The Idea of Perfection Sue Kossew , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lighting Dark Places : Essays on Kate Grenville 2010; (p. 153-166)
A Search for Perfection in a Quilt of Many Characters Ruth Arndt , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 3 October 1999; (p. 18)

— Review of The Idea of Perfection Kate Grenville , 1999 single work novel
A Search for Perfection in a Quilt of Many Characters Bridget Brooklyn , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 3 October 1999; (p. 18)

— Review of The Idea of Perfection Kate Grenville , 1999 single work novel
A Search for Perfection in a Quilt of Many Characters Jack Palmer , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 3 October 1999; (p. 18)

— Review of The Idea of Perfection Kate Grenville , 1999 single work novel
A Search for Perfection in a Quilt of Many Characters Bron Sibree , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times Sunday Times , 3 October 1999; (p. 18)

— Review of The Idea of Perfection Kate Grenville , 1999 single work novel
Country Strife Sally Morrison , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , August vol. 4 no. 7 1999; (p. 3,27)

— Review of The Idea of Perfection Kate Grenville , 1999 single work novel ; Drylands : A Book for the World's Last Reader Thea Astley , 1999 single work novel
The Wood from the Trees : Taxonomy and the Eucalypt as the New National Hero in Recent Australian Writing Susan K. Martin , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 3 no. 2004; (p. 81-94)
Explores the cultural circulation of the Eucalyptus as represented in a variety of recent Australian texts.
Kate Grenville's Mythopoeic Imagination : A Study of Her Novels Atiqa Masih , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Caring Cultures : Sharing Imaginations : Australia and India 2006; (p. 131-141)
The article examines the portrayal of female characters and the female voice in the novels of Kate Grenville.
Australian 'Everymans' : Post-Medieval Spiritual Adventurers Margaret Rogerson , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Medievalism and the Gothic in Australian Culture 2006; (p. 81-97)
Margaret Rogerson demonstrates types of medievalism in Australian literature, through a discussion of the deployment of the 'everyman' figure.
Gao bie ji jin nu quan zhu yi-Ping Kaite Gelunweier de xioa shuo Hei an zhi di yu Wan mei zhu yi Reflection of Kate Grenville's Radical Feminism : An Interpretation of Dark Places and The Idea of Perfection; 告别激进女权主义——评凯特·格伦维尔的小说《黑暗之地》与《完美主义》 Wang Liping , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Foreign Literature Studies , August vol. 28 no. 120 2006; (p. 103-107)

'凯特·格伦维尔是在激进女权运动影响下成长起来的女作家,其早期作品认同激进女权主义关于男权为女性一切苦难之源的思想,从家庭、社会和文化三个方面对于男权进行了抨击和批判.而80年代后期,格伦维尔的创作表现出在性别问题上告别激进、寻求反思与妥协的价值取向.她的小说<黑暗之地>通过变换叙述视角表达了对于男性的同情和理解,小说<完美主义>则对激进女权主义所暗含的完美主义思维方式进行了批判.'

Source: CAOD.

Bridges and Troubled Waters Carol Merli , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia : Who Cares? 2007; (p. 123-133)
Last amended 11 Oct 2018 11:43:08
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