The Literature Book

311

See also: The Three Musketeers 122–23 ■ The Lagoon and Other Stories 286

A

ustralian writers have

attracted international

interest since the middle

of the 20th century. Novelists have

moved from traditional themes such

as “mateship” (the egalitarian bonds

forged by mutual reliance in a harsh

environment), national pride, and

rural survival, to create works that

are provocative and often disturbing.

The areas explored by these books

include fantasy, beliefs, and

personal relationships, while being

rooted in the Australian experience.

One of the leading writers and

creators of this modern genre is

Australian novelist and former

advertising copywriter, Peter Carey

(1943– ). His Oscar and Lucinda,

which won the Booker Prize in

1988, is a rich and complex novel

set in the mid-19th century, with

events taking place in England

and New South Wales.

Guilt and faith

The protagonists of the book

are Oscar Hopkins and Lucinda

Leplastrier. The former is a young

clergyman who grapples with his

faith—an ungainly, uncomfortable

individual, brought up in an English

seaside community. The latter is an

independent-minded young woman,

who grew up in an “earth-floored hut

in New South Wales” surrounded

by the works of Dickens, Balzac,

and other literary greats. Becoming

an heiress after her mother’s death,

Lucinda buys an old glass factory in

Sydney, where she is regarded as

odd because of her aloofness and

strange behavior.

The pair meet onboard a ship

traveling from Britain to Australia

and from then on their lives are

interlinked, coming together in an

extraordinary project to build and

transport a glass church through

the Australian bush.

While on one level Oscar and

Lucinda is a historical novel, it

is also steeped in fantasy and

unreality—Peter Carey described

it as “a science fiction of the past.”

Its rich and complex characters,

descriptive storytelling, and broad-

ranging themes of faith, belief, and

sexuality ensured its influence on

modern Australian literature. ■

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

YOU COULD NOT TELL

A STORY LIKE THIS.

A STORY LIKE THIS

YOU COULD ONLY FEEL

OSCAR AND LUCINDA (1988), PETER CAREY

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Australian writing

BEFORE

1957 Patrick White—one of

the most influential modern

Australian writers—uses

religious symbolism in Voss, a

story of a visionary explorer’s

encounter with Australia in

the mid-19th century.

1982 T homas Kenea l ly’s

Schindler’s Ark mixes fact

and fiction to explore the

impact of an individual on

historical events.

AFTER

2001 Peter Carey is awarded

a second Booker Prize for his

novel The True History of the

Kelly Gang, an imaginative

take on the legendary

Australian hero Ned Kelly.

2006 Indigenous writer

Alexis Wright explores the

dispossession of Aboriginal

lands by white people in her

novel Carpentaria.

US_310-311_Sorghum_Lucinda.indd 311 08/10/2015 13:10