Power Without Glory: A Novel In Three Parts
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 1st ed.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Includes a full list of characters and their real names. DJ: unclipped, in mylar; slightly chipped along the spine. Markings: tape marks on feps. Binding: somewhat tight. Clean text.
One of the most controversial and consequential novels in Australian literary history, Power Without Glory chronicles the rise of John West, a ruthless fictional magnate whose grip on politics, crime, and commerce transforms an entire nation from the inside out. Set against the sweeping backdrop of Australian society from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth, Frank J. Hardy's monumental three-part saga presents a devastating portrait of unchecked ambition, systemic corruption, and the corrosive machinery of power — drawn with unmistakable parallels to real historical figures and events that shook the nation upon the book's publication in 1950. Hardy, writing initially under the pseudonym Ross Franklyn, crafted a work of audacious social realism that blurs the boundary between fiction and exposé, forcing readers to confront the uncomfortable truth that power rarely arrives with honour. The novel's dense, novelistic scope — spanning decades, families, and institutions — illustrates how corruption reproduces itself across generations, embedding itself in the very foundations of democratic life. Hardy was prosecuted for criminal libel following its self-published release, a legal battle that only amplified the book's notoriety and cemented its place as a landmark of Australian literature. For anyone who has ever wondered what truly lies beneath the surface of political respectability, this book remains as provocative and urgent as the day it was written.
Author: Frank J. Hardy
Format: Hardback
Published: 1950, Realist Printing and Publishing Co, Melbourne
Genre: Australian history
Edition: 1st ed.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Includes a full list of characters and their real names. DJ: unclipped, in mylar; slightly chipped along the spine. Markings: tape marks on feps. Binding: somewhat tight. Clean text.
One of the most controversial and consequential novels in Australian literary history, Power Without Glory chronicles the rise of John West, a ruthless fictional magnate whose grip on politics, crime, and commerce transforms an entire nation from the inside out. Set against the sweeping backdrop of Australian society from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth, Frank J. Hardy's monumental three-part saga presents a devastating portrait of unchecked ambition, systemic corruption, and the corrosive machinery of power — drawn with unmistakable parallels to real historical figures and events that shook the nation upon the book's publication in 1950. Hardy, writing initially under the pseudonym Ross Franklyn, crafted a work of audacious social realism that blurs the boundary between fiction and exposé, forcing readers to confront the uncomfortable truth that power rarely arrives with honour. The novel's dense, novelistic scope — spanning decades, families, and institutions — illustrates how corruption reproduces itself across generations, embedding itself in the very foundations of democratic life. Hardy was prosecuted for criminal libel following its self-published release, a legal battle that only amplified the book's notoriety and cemented its place as a landmark of Australian literature. For anyone who has ever wondered what truly lies beneath the surface of political respectability, this book remains as provocative and urgent as the day it was written.