READY: #AWW2019 Henry Handel Richardson

• Author: Henry Handel Richardson
• Genre: novel
• Title: Australia Felix (mentioned in John Turnham’s speech pg 255)
• Published: 1917
• Table of Contents: 4 parts, 385 pages, 40 chapters
• Theme: Sky, not spirit, do they change, those who cross the sea. (Horace)
• Trivia: Richard Mahony is a complex portrayal of Richardson’s own father.
• List of Challenges
• Monthly planning
• AWW Gen 2 @The Australian Legend

Why read the preface?

1. In the preface Richardson describes the setting:
2. You feel as if you are there in Ballarat Victoria Australia.
3. I was going to skip it but am glad I did not.
4. I was ready for chapter one with the ‘initiating’ event and
5. could place the action in the landscape of ‘The Flat’.
6. The writer continues to describe the open roads, ridges and
7. …bush country around Warrenhiep and Buninyong as Mahony continues on his life’s journey.

Quickscan:

1. Australia Felix is the story of
2. …Dr. Richard Townshend Mahony’s coming to
3. …Australia from Ireland as a young man (1851)
4. He struggles to keep his head above water
5. Soon he meets Mary Turnham (16 yr) and marries her.
6. Mahony begins his medical practice again.
7. …becomes the most skillful and prosperous doctor in Ballarat.
8. Mahoney  decides to sell his practice.
9. …and sets sail with Mary to England.
10. The next part of the trilogy will describe his English life.

Timeline:  14 years

Part 1: Mahoney is 28 yrs  – 2 months…my estimate
Part 2: Polly is 16 yrs – 2 years
Part 3: 2 years
Part 4: skip 4 years between part 3-4
End:   Mahoney is 42 yrs and Polly is 30

Life Events: Richardson ends each part with ‘life events’:
Part 1 = marriage to Polly
Part 2 = return to the medical profession and remain in Ballarat
Part 3 = investment earns RM a profit  and is out of poverty’s grip
Part 4 = about to embark on a journey

What is the turning point in the book?

1. Part 1-4: chronological order with  flashbacks to childhood in Dublin.
2. Part II ch 8:  TURNING POINT in the book.
3. Mahony dies NOT to leave Ballarat, returns to the medical profession.

What is the moment of ‘epiphany’ for Mahony?

1. Part 4 ch 3: Mahony meets the owner of a
2. small chemist’s shop, Mr Tangye. (pg 288-294)
3. Tangyne is ‘the warning’ that was foreshadowed in the poem
4. Lochiel’s Warning by Thomas Campbell !! (pg 113)
5. Mahony is despondent.

Strong point:  sense of place

1. I liked Richardson’s detailed
2. …descriptions of scenes of ‘gold-digging‘ (preface);
3. sudden thundering storm (part III ch 8)
4. busy election day in town (part III ch 11).
5. She includes the fossickers,
6. ….sounds of digging and tools that are used.
7. The the colors and sounds of the weather:
8. …doors rattling loose like teeth in their sockets.
9. The marching bands, fife and drums,
10. …straggling processions…dragging banners
11. in the middle of noise-makers and schoolchildren.

Weak point:  too many subplots…felt almost Dickensian!

1. There are too many characters and subplots that detract from the main narrative.
2. I felt overwhelmed.
3. Six subplots is too many for any length of book.
4. I decided to just concentrate on the major characters and
5. …let the secondary ones just drift in one ear and out the other.

subplot: John Turnham’s rise to prominent place in society
subplot: Ned and Jerry Turnham – one is lazy and wants to make a fortune
subplot: Sarah Turnham: – flighty, kittenish, town-bred airs,”French” genteel elegance.
subplot: Family Beamish: Mr + Mrs., Jinny, Tilly
subplot: Family Ocock , father and sons Henry, Tommy and Johnny
subplot: Purdy and his pursuit of riches at the Ballarat site
subplot: Family Glendennings – child abuse, alcoholism, adultry

What impressed me most in Richardson’s writing style?

1. The book just did not capture my heart!
2. Alliteration, use of color, personification were average
3. I found only a few really good metaphors!
4. Mahony’ s struggle with religion appeared at intervals. (Part II ch 8 – Part III ch 3)
5. Perhaps Richardson felt it important to include this side of her character,
6. but I didn’t feel it enhanced the story.
7. Finally when got to Part 4 I realized how important the ‘religious’ aspect is for the book!
8. Bravo, H.H. Richardson….now you HAVE captured my heart.

Best chapters: Part 4 chapter 3 – 6 – 7 (very powerful !)

What are the ‘allusions’ that Richadson uses in the story?

Allusions connect the text with the larger world.
Allusion: Dorcas: (Bible) a charitable woman of Joppa (Acts 9:36-42);
Allusion: Phoebus: Greek Mythology; Apollo, the god of the sun.
Allusion: “O tempora o mores” is a sentence by Cicero.
Allusion: James Syme (1799 – 1870) pioneering Scottish surgeon.
Allusion: Backdrop Crimean War (1853-1856)
Allusion: David Syme (1827 – 1908) was a Scottish-Australian newspaper proprietor of The Age.
Allusion: Paintings  “Battle of Waterloo” and “Harvey discovering the circulation of blood.”
Alllusion: Horace: – wonderful, really expresses the ‘essence’ of the book!
Sky, not spirit, do they change, those who cross the sea.

How does the character of Mahony change?

1. Mahony strives for extreme happiness
2. …but (wife, good job and finances, comfortable environment).
3. He needs to learn to be less rigid in this thinking.
4. Learn to balance his emotions.
5. CHANGE: Mahony does consider Polly’s situation
6. …when he promised not to argue with Mrs. Beamish
7. …while she attended to Polly’s last days of pregnancy.

What is Mahony’s great character flaw:

1. Mahoney is in the grip of black and white thinking.
2. It robs him of the balance in his life
3. Mahoney does not see that people are ‘gray’.
4. No one is just good or bad.
5. Mahony does not realize that he is
6. …never going to be everything he wants to be.
7. We’re human, we’re imperfect.
8. CHANGE: (pg 144)  Mahoney is learning to listen…
9. “One was forced almost against one’s will to listen to him (Ned) …
10. …Mahony toned down his first sweeping judgement of his young relative.”

Conclusion:

1. I read every sentence closely and
2. ….it took me 2 weeks to read 385 pages.
3. In the beginning The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
4. …didn’t meet up to my expectations.
5. It was good…but not great.
6. Yet as I progressed.
7. I finally  saw the connections, the deeper meaning that
8. …Richardson wanted to expose.
9. I persevered… and discovered part 4 is the best!!

Last thoughts:

1. Sometimes one writer’s strength (Ruth Park, characterization)
2. is another’s weakness.
3. Richardson outshines Ruth Park with her
4. dialogue, allusions, sense of place and gestures.
5. I enjoyed Ruth Park’s The Harp in the South and
6. …Nevil Shute’s On The Beach but
7. ..The Fortunes of Richard Mahony was even better
8. I found the best description of Richard Mahony
9. …in a quote by André Malraux:
10. “Man is not what he thinks he is…He is what he hides.