The Four-Legged Lottery
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: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: slight lean to book.
In the grand, chaotic theatre of Australian horse racing, where fortunes are wagered on the thunder of hooves and the dreams of punters rise and fall in an instant, Frank Hardy's The Four-Legged Lottery stands as a riotous and razor-sharp chronicle of the turf. With his trademark blend of larrikin wit and social conscience, Hardy presents a world populated by shrewd bookmakers, desperate gamblers, and the magnificent, unpredictable beasts at the centre of it all — capturing the culture of Australian racing not merely as a sport, but as a national obsession and a mirror to the working-class soul. Hardy, best known for his landmark novel Power Without Glory, brings the same unflinching eye for hypocrisy and the same deep affection for the battler to this rollicking work, illustrating how the racetrack serves as a great democratic leveller where hope and folly walk side by side. His prose crackles with vernacular energy and ironic humour, making this an essential document of mid-twentieth-century Australian life and culture. Whether Hardy is celebrating a long-odds winner or lamenting the eternal losing streak of the true believer, one question lingers long after the last race is run: is the punt a harmless national pastime, or is the house — as always — the only sure winner?
Author: Frank Hardy
Format: Hardback
Published: 1976, Rigby
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: slight lean to book.
In the grand, chaotic theatre of Australian horse racing, where fortunes are wagered on the thunder of hooves and the dreams of punters rise and fall in an instant, Frank Hardy's The Four-Legged Lottery stands as a riotous and razor-sharp chronicle of the turf. With his trademark blend of larrikin wit and social conscience, Hardy presents a world populated by shrewd bookmakers, desperate gamblers, and the magnificent, unpredictable beasts at the centre of it all — capturing the culture of Australian racing not merely as a sport, but as a national obsession and a mirror to the working-class soul. Hardy, best known for his landmark novel Power Without Glory, brings the same unflinching eye for hypocrisy and the same deep affection for the battler to this rollicking work, illustrating how the racetrack serves as a great democratic leveller where hope and folly walk side by side. His prose crackles with vernacular energy and ironic humour, making this an essential document of mid-twentieth-century Australian life and culture. Whether Hardy is celebrating a long-odds winner or lamenting the eternal losing streak of the true believer, one question lingers long after the last race is run: is the punt a harmless national pastime, or is the house — as always — the only sure winner?