Power Without Glory (SIGNED)
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.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
One of the most controversial novels in Australian literary history, Power Without Glory chronicles the rise of John West, a ruthless and cunning man who claws his way from the poverty-stricken slums of Melbourne to the heights of political and financial power in the first half of the twentieth century. Frank Hardy's sweeping narrative dissects the corrupt machinery of Australian society — the back-room deals, the rigged elections, and the moral compromises that underpin a nation's myth of egalitarianism — with a fierce, unflinching realism that stunned readers upon its first publication in 1950. Rooted in the thinly veiled biography of real-life Melbourne crime figure and racing identity John Wren, Power Without Glory stands as a landmark of Australian literature, a bold indictment of greed, political corruption, and the seductive brutality of power. Hardy's prose is muscular and unrelenting, drawing the reader deep into a world where loyalty is a currency and morality a luxury few can afford. So incendiary was the novel that Hardy faced criminal libel charges upon its release — a testament to the raw nerve it struck in the national consciousness. A defining work of Australian letters, it leaves the reader asking one haunting question: in a society built on power, can anyone truly escape its reach?
Author: Frank Hardy
Format: Hardback
Published: 1982, Angus & Robertson Publishers
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
One of the most controversial novels in Australian literary history, Power Without Glory chronicles the rise of John West, a ruthless and cunning man who claws his way from the poverty-stricken slums of Melbourne to the heights of political and financial power in the first half of the twentieth century. Frank Hardy's sweeping narrative dissects the corrupt machinery of Australian society — the back-room deals, the rigged elections, and the moral compromises that underpin a nation's myth of egalitarianism — with a fierce, unflinching realism that stunned readers upon its first publication in 1950. Rooted in the thinly veiled biography of real-life Melbourne crime figure and racing identity John Wren, Power Without Glory stands as a landmark of Australian literature, a bold indictment of greed, political corruption, and the seductive brutality of power. Hardy's prose is muscular and unrelenting, drawing the reader deep into a world where loyalty is a currency and morality a luxury few can afford. So incendiary was the novel that Hardy faced criminal libel charges upon its release — a testament to the raw nerve it struck in the national consciousness. A defining work of Australian letters, it leaves the reader asking one haunting question: in a society built on power, can anyone truly escape its reach?