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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Escaped convict, Rufus Dawes, is washed up, exhausted, on the shore at Coal Head. Upon waking he finds the coal huts, and the provisions within, abandoned. He determines to take a supply of bread and meat with him, cross the desert in eighteen days, and reinvent himself as a free man. However, his plans go awry.
Notes
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Editor's note: (From 'His Natural Life.')
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
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His Natural Life
For the Term of His Natural Life
1870-1872
Z1032375
1870-1872
single work
novel
(taught in 15 units)
'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)
Last amended 15 Jun 2010 15:57:05
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