True History Of The Kelly Gang
 First edition | |
| Writer | Peter Carey |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Kate Barry |
| State | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Law-breaking, historical novel |
| Publisher | UQP (Commonwealth of australia) |
| Publication date | 2000 |
| Media blazon | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
| Pages | 401pp |
| ISBN | 0-7022-3236-X |
| OCLC | 52247236 |
| Preceded by | Jack Maggs |
| Followed by | My Life as a Imitation |
True History of the Kelly Gang is a novel past Australian author Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was kickoff published in Brisbane past the University of Queensland Printing in 2000.[1] It won the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the same yr. Despite its title, the book is fiction and a variation on the Ned Kelly story.
Plot summary [edit]
Ned Kelly begins his autobiography with a clarification of his begetter, John "Red" Kelly, an Irishman transported to Van Diemen's State and eventually settling in the colony of Victoria, Commonwealth of australia. After marrying Ned's mother Ellen (née Quinn), the Kellys settle in Avenel, a rural area northeast of Melbourne. Red Kelly is shown to take numerous brushes with the colonial constabulary forces, resulting in his imprisonment and death when his son Ned was twelve years of age.
After the balance of the family resettles in northeast Victoria under the State Grant Act, Ned's mother attempts to provide for her children by running a shebeen and taking on a serial of lovers, including the notorious bushranger Harry Power. Power agrees to take on the young Ned every bit an apprentice, and provides Ned with knowledge of the land, hideouts, and strategies for bushranging. Kelly eventually leaves Power and returns to his family'southward settlement, where he is shown making dogged attempts to alive an honest lifestyle.
Kelly is arrested and sentenced to three years in prison house for reception of a stolen horse (although Kelly claims that a friend, "Wild" Wright, knowingly sold him the stolen horse without Kelly'due south knowledge – Kelly later exacts revenge on Wright in a bare-knuckle boxing lucifer). After ii years of working as a sawmill hand, he is drawn dorsum to bushranging when a herd of his horses is appropriated by a rival squatter. His descent back into crime is precipitated by a visit from a local police officer, Lawman Alex Fitzpatrick. The policeman woos Ned'south younger sis Kate, prompting Ned to reveal that Fitzpatrick has multiple mistresses in other towns and has no intention of marrying Kate. Subsequently his mother Ellen threatens the lawman with violence, Fitzpatrick pulls his revolver on the family and Ned shoots him in the hand in self-defense. Although he dresses the wound and Fitzpatrick leaves while promising that no activeness volition exist taken, warrants for the abort of Ned and his younger brother Dan are issued the next mean solar day.
Ned Kelly and his brother Dan hide out in the hills of northeast Victoria, somewhen beingness joined past their friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne (later on becoming known as the Kelly Gang). Kelly's mother is eventually arrested forth with her baby daughter and imprisoned in Melbourne as enticement for Kelly to requite himself up. A disengagement of four policemen is eventually sent to kill the quartet after efforts to arrest them prove unsuccessful; the Kelly Gang ambushes them at Stringybark Creek, where Ned kills three of the policemen. This adds to the growing folklore surrounding the Kelly Gang, which they fuel by robbing banks and giving parts of the coin to the lower-form settlers in Victoria who assist to shelter the gang.
During the gang's raids, Ned Kelly meets a young Irish girl named Mary Hearn, who already has a young son by Kelly'south stepfather, George King. Kelly falls in dear with Mary and makes plans to escape the colony with her after she becomes meaning with his kid. Crucially, it is Mary who motivates Kelly to begin writing the story of his life every bit a legacy for his future child, who she fears volition never know its begetter. Following ii successful bank robberies, Mary uses the money to emigrate to San Francisco with her son and Kelly'southward unborn daughter; Kelly remains behind, however, unwilling to leave Australia until his female parent is released from jail.
The gang is eventually cornered by a big squad of dozens of policemen (versus just four in the Kelly Gang) in the town of Glenrowan where the gang has taken numerous hostages and synthetic several suits of plate-steel armor for protection. Ane of the hostages is the crippled local schoolmaster, Thomas Curnow, who encourages Kelly to relate the story of his entire life after seeing samples of his writing. Curnow betrays the gang by alert the incoming police train that the gang has sabotaged the tracks, feeling that history will view him equally a "hero". The policemen surround the boondocks and engage in a furious shootout with the armor-clad gang, seriously wounding Ned Kelly and killing the other iii members of the gang. Kelly'south narrative stops abruptly just before the shootout itself; a secondary narrator, identified equally "S.C", relates the tale of the gunfight and Kelly'south death by hanging. Since Curnow is shown to take escaped Glenrowan with Kelly'due south manuscripts, information technology is assumed that this narrator is a relative of Curnow's. Kelly dies a hero to the people of northeastern Victoria, with the legend of his life left to grow over time.
Technique [edit]
The novel is divided into thirteen sections (each ostensibly written by Kelly), with a short description at the start of each section describing the physical condition of the original manuscripts. The novel also includes a preface and a frame narrative at the terminate which draw the events of Kelly's final shootout at Glenrowan and his eventual death penalty. Carey departs from what is known about Kelly's life past providing him with a lover and a girl, for whom he has been recording his life history whilst on the run from the police.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The novel is written in a distinctive colloquial style, with lilliputian in the way of punctuation or grammar; the influence of Kelly's Irish heritage is also credible in his language. The style is similar to Kelly'south well-nigh famous surviving piece of writing, The Jerilderie Letter. Excepting the frame narratives of "S.C", the novel does not incorporate any commas. Although there is much profanity in the novel, it has been censored (replacing vulgarities with terms such every bit "effing" or "adjectival") for the benefit of Kelly'southward fictional daughter, presumably by Kelly himself.
Reception [edit]
English writer Robert McCrum named True History of the Kelly Gang one of the 100 greatest novels written in English.[ii] In 2019, the novel was ranked 53rd on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.[three]
In an effort to attract American readers to the story, the book's American publisher, Alfred Knopf, heralded the volume as a "Great American Novel", even though the novel takes place entirely within Australia. The claim that this volume is an "American novel" appears to exist based on the fact that writer Peter Carey, an Australian, has lived in New York City for many years.
Awards and nominations [edit]
- Center for Australian Cultural Studies Award, 2000: winner
- Colin Roderick Award, All-time Australian Book, 2000: winner
- Booksellers Choice Award, 2000: shortlisted
- Booker Prize (UK), 2001: winner
- The Courier-Mail Volume of the Year Honour, 2001: joint winner
- Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Best Fiction Book, 2001: winner
- Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2001: winner
-
- In 2001 in a press release the administrators of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Land Library of Victoria, erroneously named Frank Moorhouse'southward Dark Palace as the winner of that year's laurels, when in fact the decision had gone to True History of the Kelly Gang.[4]
- The Age Book of the Year Honour, Fiction Prize, 2001: winner
- The Historic period Book of the Yr Award, Book of the Year, 2001: winner
- Democracy Writers Prize, Southward Eastern asia Region, Best Book for the Region Award, 2001: winner
- Commonwealth Writers Prize, Overall Best Book Award, 2001: winner
- Miles Franklin Award, 2001: shortlisted
- One Volume One Brisbane, 2002: winner
- Festival Awards for Literature (SA), The Premier's Honour, 2002: winner
- Festival Awards for Literature (SA), Dymocks Booksellers National Fiction Award, 2002: inaugural winner
- International Dublin Literary Award, 2002: shortlisted
- Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (French republic), 2003: winner
Fiction vs known facts [edit]
This novel uses many aspects of the history of the Kelly Gang, but much of it is invented, and some facts are distorted.
The 'parcels' are entirely an invention of the author, as is the "Sons of Sieve", and the suggestion that Ellen Kelly and Harry Ability were lovers. The character Mary Hearne, and her children, are entirely fictional; Ned Kelly is not known to accept fathered any children in his lifetime, nor was he known to be romantically involved with whatsoever woman during his outlawry.
Motion picture adaptation [edit]
A film adaptation of Carey'southward novel was released in Australian cinemas in January 2020.[5] Directed by Justin Kurzel, the film'southward cast includes George MacKay as Ned Kelly and Russell Crowe as Harry Ability.[6] [7]
References [edit]
- ^ An excerpt was previously published as Carey, Peter (Summertime 2000). "True history of the Kelly Gang, beginning part". Granta. seventy: 69–100.
- ^ McCrum, Robert (16 August 2015). "The 100 best novels: No 100 – True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2000)". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved sixteen August 2015.
- ^ "The 100 best books of the 21st century". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 September 2019.
- ^ Barkham, Patrick (16 October 2001). "Prize fight". The Guardian. Commonwealth of australia: Guardian News and Media Express. Retrieved seven March 2017.
- ^ Bradley, D.K. (13 January 2020). "Film Review: True History of the Kelly Gang". Adelaide Review.
- ^ Keslassy, Elsa (30 April 2018). "Memento Films International Boards Justin Kurzel'south 'True History of the Kelly Gang' With Russell Crowe". Variety. Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ "Film4 and all-star cast reveal Truthful History of the Kelly Gang". Aqueduct iv News. Channel Iv Television receiver Corporation. 1 May 2018. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
External links [edit]
- Interview with Peter Carey about the novel
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_History_of_the_Kelly_Gang
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