Studies in Classic Australian Fiction By Michael Wilding

Australians Abroad (ed. with Charles Higham) Milton's Paradise Lost Marvell: Modern Judgements (ed.) Cultural Policy in Great Britain (with Michael Green) Marcus Clarke: Australian Authors (ed.) Marcus Clarke: Australian Writers & Their Work The Radical Reader (ed. with Stephen Knight) The Tabloid Story Pocket Book (ed.) The Workingman's Paradise by William Lane (ed.) Political Fictions Stories by Marcus Clarke (ed.) Dragons Teeth: Literature in the English Revolution Air Mail from Down Under (ed. with Rudi Krausmann) The Radical Tradition Social Visions The Oxford Book of Australian Short Stories (ed.)

Fiction Aspects of the Dying Process Living Together The Short Story Embassy The West Midland Underground Scenic Drive The Phallic Forest Pacific Highway Reading the Signs The Paraguayan Experiment The Man of Slow Feeling Under Saturn Great Climate Her Most Bizarre Sexual Experience This is For You Book of the Reading Somewhere New: New & Selected Stories Studies in Classic Australian Fiction

Michael Wilding

SYDNEY STUDIES SHOESTRING PRESS Studies in Classic Australian Fiction ©Michael Wilding, 1997

Sydney Studies in Society and Culture 16

ISSN 0812-6402 ISBN 0949405 13 2

Published in Australia by the Sydney Association for Studies in Society and Culture University of Sydney, NSW 2006

Distributed by Sydney Studies PO Box 575 Leichhardt Sydney, NSW 2040 (02) 9569 1452

Published in the United Kingdom by Shoestring Press 19 Devonshire Avenue, Nottingham NG9 1 BS

Formatting and design by Annette Krausmann

Printed in Australia by Berget Pty Ltd

Published with the support of the Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities Contents

Weird Melancholy: the stories of Marcus Clarke 9

Henry Lawson's Socialist Vision 32

William Lane's The Workingmen s Paradise: Pioneering Socialist Realism 76

Joseph Furphy's Such Is Life 109

The Historical Novel: Jack Lindsay's 1649 134

Christina Stead's Seven Poor Men of Sydney 160

Christina Stead's The Puzzlelzeaded Girl: The Political Context 187

Patrick White and the Politics of Modernism 221 Acknowledgements Acknowledgement is gratefully given to the following publications in which earlier versions of this material first appeared. Marcus Clarke: in Mapped But Not Known, ed. P. R. Eaden and F. H. Mares (Wakefield Press, Adelaide) (Festschrift for Brian Elliott). Heny Lawson: part appeared in The Rise of Socialist Fiction, ed. H. Gustav Klaus (Harvester Press, Sussex: StMartin's Press, New York), part in Visions Critiques, I (The Sorbonne, Paris), and part in 111e Radical Tradition (the 1992 Colin Roderick lectures). (Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, James Cook University, Townsville). William Lane: Words & World.f, ed. Stephen Knight&S.N. Mukherjee(SydneyStudies in Society & Culture, I). Joseph Furphy: The Radical Tradition. Jack Lindsay: Culture & History,ed. Bernard Smith (Hale & lremonger, Sydney) (Festschrift for Jack Lindsay). Christina Stead, Seven Poor Men of Sydney: part in Southerly, (Sydney), part in The Radical Tradition. Christina Stead, The Puuleheaded Girl: part in London Magazine, part in Words & Wordsmiths, ed. G. Barnes, J. Gunn, S. Jensen and L. Jobling, (University of Sydney) (Festschrift for H. L. Rogers). Patrick White: RANAM: Recherches Anglaises et Nord-Americaines (University of Strasbourg) (Festschrift for Simone Vauthier). Earlier versions of this material were given at the Association for the Study of Australian Literature conference, University of Queensland; the American Association for Australian Studies conference, Penn State University; the Australian Studies Association conference, Commonwealth Institute and the Sir Robert Menzies Australian Studies Centre, University of London; the International Symposium on the Short Story, the Sorbonne; the Perceptions of a Culture symposium, Yale University; the Patrick White day, University of Newcastle and Mattara festival. And at the University of Wales, Bangor; University of Mannheim; J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt; University of Braunschweig; University of Ljubljana; University of Oregon, Eugene; Stanford University; British Studies Seminar, Harry Ransom Centre, University of Texas at Austin; University of Paris VII; University of Copenhagen; University of Vienna; University of Ttibingen; University of Gottingen; University of Graz; University of Klagenfurt; Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga; University of Sydney; BBC Radio 3; at the University of Queensland during my tenure of the George Watson fellowship; and at the James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, as the Colin Roderick lectures. To Pauline and John Lucas