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: Tanning and foxing
One of the most powerful and harrowing novels ever written about the brutality of the convict system, For the Term of His Natural Life chronicles the unjust imprisonment of Rufus Dawes — a man of noble birth who, condemned for a crime he did not commit, is transported to the savage penal colonies of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in the early nineteenth century. Marcus Clarke's 1874 masterwork presents a searing portrait of institutional cruelty, resilience, and the destruction wrought upon the human spirit by a system designed not for rehabilitation but for punishment without mercy. The novel details the full arc of Dawes's suffering across the brutal settlements of Macquarie Harbour and Port Arthur, weaving in a cast of vividly rendered characters — from sadistic warders to fellow convicts broken by despair — against a backdrop of Australia's raw and unforgiving landscape. Clarke's prose is unflinching in its social criticism, arguing with moral urgency that the convict transportation system was a profound failure of justice and humanity, a theme that resonated deeply with readers across the British Empire upon the novel's serial publication. Widely regarded as the greatest Australian novel of the nineteenth century, it stands as a cornerstone of Australian literary identity, blending the sweep of Dickensian social realism with the psychological intensity of Victor Hugo. A story of enduring love, wrongful condemnation, and the indomitable will to survive, it leaves the reader to ponder just how much one innocent soul can bear before justice — if it comes at all — arrives far too late.
Author: Marcus Clarke
Format: Hardback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Tanning and foxing
One of the most powerful and harrowing novels ever written about the brutality of the convict system, For the Term of His Natural Life chronicles the unjust imprisonment of Rufus Dawes — a man of noble birth who, condemned for a crime he did not commit, is transported to the savage penal colonies of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in the early nineteenth century. Marcus Clarke's 1874 masterwork presents a searing portrait of institutional cruelty, resilience, and the destruction wrought upon the human spirit by a system designed not for rehabilitation but for punishment without mercy. The novel details the full arc of Dawes's suffering across the brutal settlements of Macquarie Harbour and Port Arthur, weaving in a cast of vividly rendered characters — from sadistic warders to fellow convicts broken by despair — against a backdrop of Australia's raw and unforgiving landscape. Clarke's prose is unflinching in its social criticism, arguing with moral urgency that the convict transportation system was a profound failure of justice and humanity, a theme that resonated deeply with readers across the British Empire upon the novel's serial publication. Widely regarded as the greatest Australian novel of the nineteenth century, it stands as a cornerstone of Australian literary identity, blending the sweep of Dickensian social realism with the psychological intensity of Victor Hugo. A story of enduring love, wrongful condemnation, and the indomitable will to survive, it leaves the reader to ponder just how much one innocent soul can bear before justice — if it comes at all — arrives far too late.