{"product_id":"2026200016266-secondhand-power-without-glory","title":"Power Without Glory","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First Edition Thus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Tanned pages, price clipped FEP, some minor markings to board.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew novels in Australian literary history have struck as nerve-shatteringly close to the bone as Power Without Glory, a sprawling, audacious work that chronicles the rise of a ruthless working-class man from the slums of Melbourne to the heights of political and financial power across the first half of the twentieth century. Frank J. Hardy's fictional patriarch, John West, is a thinly veiled portrait of real-life gambling magnate John Wren, and the narrative unfolds across three parts with the scope and fury of a true epic — tracking corruption, backroom deals, gang violence, and the corrosive hunger for dominance that poisons every relationship West touches.\n\nHardy's prose is unflinching and documentary in spirit, grounded in meticulous research and a fierce socialist conscience that transforms this roman à clef into a sweeping indictment of unchecked capitalism and political patronage in Australian society. Originally self-published in 1950 after no commercial publisher would dare touch it — and immediately the subject of a landmark defamation trial — the novel stands as one of the most controversial and consequential works ever produced on Australian soil. For readers who believe that power always leaves a trail, Power Without Glory asks the darkest of questions: what remains of a man when glory is the only thing he never truly earns?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336816828635,"sku":"2026200016266-SECONDHAND","price":85.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/d7c455b1-5f6c-4394-b6cb-bceef2c70683.png?v=1789958728","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016266-secondhand-power-without-glory","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}