For the Term of His Natural Life

by Marcus Clarke, Mint Editions (Contribution by)

Overview

For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) is a novel by Marcus Clarke. Inspired by a journey taken by the author to the penal colony of Port Arthur, Tasmania, the novel was originally serialized in The Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872. For its depictions of the brutality and inhumanity of Australia’s penal colonies, the novel has been recognized as a powerful realist novel and one of the first works of Tasmanian Gothic literature. In the year 1827, a young British aristocrat is implicated in the murder and robbery of Lord Bellasis, his birth father. Sent to Van Diemen’s Land, he changes his name to Rufus Dawes and steadies himself for life in some of the world’s most notorious penal colonies. On board the Malabar, which is also transporting the new commander of the settlement at Macquarie Harbour, a group of mutineers hatches a plan to take control of the ship. Although Dawes warns the Captain, the conspirators place responsibility for the attempted mutiny on his innocent shoulders, and his sentence is extended for the rest of his life. At Macquarie Harbor and later Port Arthur, Dawes is brutalized, isolated, and tortured, leaving him no choice but to plan his unlikely escape. This edition of Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life is a classic of Australian literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513134505
Publisher:	Mint Editions
Publication date:	02/15/2022
Series:	Mint Editions (Political and Social Narratives)
Pages:	484
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Marcus Clarke (1846-1881) was an Australian novelist, journalist, poet, and librarian. Born in London, Clarke was educated at Highgate School, where he was a classmate of poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins. Orphaned in 1862, Clarke emigrated to Australia the following year. After toiling as a bank clerk in Melbourne, he moved to a remote station along the Wimmera River and learned the art of farming. In 1867, having published several stories for the Australian Magazine, Clarke found steady work with The Argus and The Australasian back in Melbourne, gaining a reputation as a popular journalist of urban life. In 1870, after taking a trip to Tasmania to report on the status of the nation’s penal colonies, Clarke began publishing his novel For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) in serial installments in The Australian Journal. The work was quickly recognized as a classic of Australian literature, earning its author comparisons to such literary titans as Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Towards the end of his life, Clarke worked as an assistant librarian at the Melbourne Public Library—now the State Library Victoria—where many of his manuscripts, notebooks, letters, and diaries are held today.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	Preface	1
	Prologue	3
Book 1	The Sea - 1827
1.	The Prison Ship	15
2.	Sarah Purfoy	23
3.	The Monotony Breaks	32
4.	The Hospital	36
5.	The Barracoon	41
6.	The Fate of the Hydaspes	48
7.	Typhus Fever	58
8.	A Dangerous Crisis	66
9.	Woman's Weapons	74
10.	Eight Bells	79
11.	Discoveries and Confessions	89
12.	A Newspaper Paragraph	93
Book 2	Macquarie Harbour - 1833
13.	The Topography of Van Dieman's Land	97
14.	The Solitary of "Hell's Gates"	101
15.	A Social Evening	105
16.	The Bolter	116
17.	Sylvia	120
18.	A Leap in the Dark	124
19.	The Last of Macquarie Harbour	132
20.	The Power of the Wilderness	138
21.	The Seizure of the Osprey	145
22.	John Rex's Revenge	152
23.	Left at "Hell's Gates"	159
24.	"Mr." Dawes	172
25.	What the Seaweed Suggested	181
26.	A Wonderful Day's Work	186
27.	The Coracle	194
28.	The Writing on the Sand	201
29.	At Sea	206
Book 3	Port Arthur - 1838
30.	A Labourer in the Vineyard	215
31.	Sarah Purfoy's Request	228
32.	The Story of Two Birds of Prey	239
33.	"The Notorious Dawes"	248
34.	Maurice Frere's Good Angel	257
35.	Mr. Meekin Administers Consolation	262
36.	Rufus Dawes's Idyll	268
37.	An Escape	273
38.	John Rex's Letter Home	277
39.	What Became of the Mutineers of the Osprey	287
40.	A Relic of Macquarie Harbour	301
41.	At Port Arthur	304
42.	The Commandant's Butler	309
43.	Mr. North's Indisposition	314
44.	One Hundred Lashes	323
45.	Kicking Against the Pricks	329
46.	Captain and Mrs. Frere	334
47.	In the Hospital	339
48.	The Consolation of Religion	343
49.	"A Natural Penitentiary"	347
50.	A Visit of Inspection	351
51.	Gathering in the Threads	361
52.	Running the Gauntlet	374
53.	In the Night	381
54.	The Flight	388
55.	The Work of the Sea	393
56.	The Valley of the Shadow of Death	406
Book 4	Norfolk Island - 1846
57.	Extracted from the Diary of the Rev. James North	417
58.	The Lost Heir	429
59.	Extracted from the Diary of the Rev. James North	441
60.	Extracted from the Diary of the Rev. James North	449
61.	Mr. Richard Devine Surprised	454
62.	In Which the Chaplain is Taken Ill	459
63.	Breaking a Man's Spirit	467
64.	Extracted from the Diary of the Rev. James North	472
65.	The Longest Straw	477
66.	A Meeting	483
67.	Extracted from the Diary of the Rev. James North	491
68.	The Strange Behaviour of Mr. North	495
69.	Mr. North Speaks	501
70.	Getting Ready for Sea	507
71.	The Discovery	517
72.	Fifteen Hours	523
73.	The Redemption	526
74.	The Cyclone	532
	Epilogue	538
	Appendix	539