The Tilted Cross
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.
Edition: 1st ed.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Boards - good. Binding - tight. Clean text.
A darkly compelling work of Australian literary fiction, The Tilted Cross chronicles the brutal and morally complex world of colonial Van Diemen's Land — present-day Tasmania — in the mid-nineteenth century. Drawing from the real-life story of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a convicted poisoner and forger transported to the penal colony, Hal Porter constructs a vivid and unflinching portrait of depravity, social hypocrisy, and the grotesque theatre of colonial society. Written in Porter's characteristically ornate and baroque prose style, the novel presents its cast of convicts, gaolers, and social climbers with savage wit and an almost theatrical intensity. The narrative uncovers the corruption lurking beneath the veneer of respectability, arguing implicitly that civilization itself is a kind of performance staged over a foundation of cruelty. Regarded as one of the masterworks of mid-twentieth-century Australian literature, it remains a challenging and rewarding read for those drawn to historical fiction of uncommon literary ambition.
Author: Hal Porter
Format: Hardback
Published: 1961, Faber and Faber
Genre: Modern fiction
Edition: 1st ed.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Boards - good. Binding - tight. Clean text.
A darkly compelling work of Australian literary fiction, The Tilted Cross chronicles the brutal and morally complex world of colonial Van Diemen's Land — present-day Tasmania — in the mid-nineteenth century. Drawing from the real-life story of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a convicted poisoner and forger transported to the penal colony, Hal Porter constructs a vivid and unflinching portrait of depravity, social hypocrisy, and the grotesque theatre of colonial society. Written in Porter's characteristically ornate and baroque prose style, the novel presents its cast of convicts, gaolers, and social climbers with savage wit and an almost theatrical intensity. The narrative uncovers the corruption lurking beneath the veneer of respectability, arguing implicitly that civilization itself is a kind of performance staged over a foundation of cruelty. Regarded as one of the masterworks of mid-twentieth-century Australian literature, it remains a challenging and rewarding read for those drawn to historical fiction of uncommon literary ambition.