For The Term Of His Natural Life
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: N/A
Pages: Good
Few novels have captured the brutal machinery of colonial injustice with such devastating power as Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life. Set against the unforgiving penal settlements of nineteenth-century Van Diemen's Land — present-day Tasmania — the novel chronicles the harrowing odyssey of Rufus Dawes, a man of noble birth who, condemned for a crime he did not commit, is swallowed whole by a system designed to break the human spirit. Clarke presents a world of floggings, forced labour, and moral degradation with unflinching detail, drawing the reader into a darkness that is both historically grounded and profoundly human. First serialised in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872, the novel stands as one of the great works of Australian literature, a searing indictment of the convict transportation system and a testament to the resilience of the individual against institutional cruelty. Clarke's prose is muscular and vivid, marshalling a vast cast of characters — wardens, priests, fellow convicts, and aristocrats — to illustrate the full social panorama of a society built upon suffering. This edition includes an introduction by F.H. Mares, which situates the novel within its literary and historical context, deepening the reader's appreciation of a work that remains as urgent and morally unsettling as the day it was written.
Author: Marcus Clarke
Format: Hardback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
Few novels have captured the brutal machinery of colonial injustice with such devastating power as Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life. Set against the unforgiving penal settlements of nineteenth-century Van Diemen's Land — present-day Tasmania — the novel chronicles the harrowing odyssey of Rufus Dawes, a man of noble birth who, condemned for a crime he did not commit, is swallowed whole by a system designed to break the human spirit. Clarke presents a world of floggings, forced labour, and moral degradation with unflinching detail, drawing the reader into a darkness that is both historically grounded and profoundly human. First serialised in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872, the novel stands as one of the great works of Australian literature, a searing indictment of the convict transportation system and a testament to the resilience of the individual against institutional cruelty. Clarke's prose is muscular and vivid, marshalling a vast cast of characters — wardens, priests, fellow convicts, and aristocrats — to illustrate the full social panorama of a society built upon suffering. This edition includes an introduction by F.H. Mares, which situates the novel within its literary and historical context, deepening the reader's appreciation of a work that remains as urgent and morally unsettling as the day it was written.