Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

True History of the Kelly Gang

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 7,485 ratings · 501 reviews

“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.”

In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on erran...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published December 4th 2001 by Vintage (first published 2000)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Booker Prize Winners

20th out of 49 books — 986 voters

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Best Historical Fiction

355th out of 3,151 books — 13,798 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jun 10, 2007 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If, like me, you don't know anything about Ned Kelly when you start this book, don't be scared off by the first two pages with the killer robot. That will all become clear later. Really, between the cover design, the killer robot, and the difficult style, I thought I was going to hate this book. Halfway through it, I realized I was totally in love with it. It was this paragraph that really did it for me:

We thought you doomed and rooned the minute you walked out past the chook house and Wild deli...more

10 likes · like · see review

Aug 13, 2008 Christy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Written in the words of the infamous bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly – Australia’s Jesse James/ Robin Hood – the True History of the Kelly Gang is a novel which accounts Kelly’s life from impoverished childhood to inevitable capture and execution. Kelly’s story centers on the unfairness and corruption of the nineteenth century Australian legal system, and the discriminations against the poor and the Irish (of which Kelly was both). Through it all, Ned Kelly’s motivations are for justice, family...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 30, 2008 Leif Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booker, aussie-lit

This is written as an memoir (difference between an autobiography & a memoir; memoirs don't have indexes) Ned Kelly is setting down for an infant daughter he will never see. Kind of poignant actually. Carey wrote this in a nineteenth century Australian vernacular. Kind of like Trainspotting. Not for everyone. Normally I'd find it annoying and pretentious, but Carey makes it work. That alone probably merits his Booker. The story by itself is amazing. Even in his own words Kelly clearly is no...more

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 11, 2009 Chana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: booker-prize, australia, favorites, historical-fiction

I fell in love with the voice of Ned Kelly. I can't make judgement on Ned Kelly, but I loved the character as told over to us by Peter Carey. I was simply quite taken. When I first started the book I felt that a little punctuation wouldn't be amiss but as the story continued I started to think in that voice, to hear it in my head and roll the sounds of it around in my mouth. This is the line where I realized that I loved this book, "He were as lazy as the dog that rests its head against the wall...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 15, 2009 Neibaur rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was moved by the end of the story. Even though I didn't give it five stars, I would describe it as a beautiful story. Though the story takes place in Australia at the end of the 19th century, I couldn't help but think of all of the young people that I've known over the past 4 years who were involved in gangs or on the verge of joining gangs. Carey does a great job of putting a very human face to the leader of the Kelly gang (fictional as far as I know), telling his story from childhood, and ma...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 26, 2009 Visha Burkart rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sarah Messer

This is the second book I have read from Australian author Peter Carey. He is only the second writer to have won the prestigious Booker Prize twice (the first is another favorite writer of mine, JM Coetzee of South Africa). Carey won his Bookers for this book and for Oscar and Lucinda, the first of his books I've read.

What distinguishes each book is the unique voice and writing style Carey uses for each story. While the language of Oscar and Lucinda is sumptuous - almost to the point of being...more This is the second book I have read from Australian author Peter Carey. He is only the second writer to have won the prestigious Booker Prize twice (the first is another favorite writer of mine, JM Coetzee of South Africa). Carey won his Bookers for this book and for Oscar and Lucinda, the first of his books I've read.

What distinguishes each book is the unique voice and writing style Carey uses for each story. While the language of Oscar and Lucinda is sumptuous - almost to the point of being superlative - THKG has language that is coarse and archaic. The language is not obscene (profanities are often demarcated by the terms "effing" or "adjectival") but the story is rendered in the vernacular of 1870s-rural Australia, and numerous archaic terms are woven throughout the text (sherrick, skillion, chook, phiz, fealty, gloaming, gaol - to name but a few). Kelly Gang also has no punctuation but periods. There are no commas, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, etc. And sentence upon sentence is often heaped together, running on until the period, like a group of run-on thoughts. I often had to read with my fingers upon the page to keep from falling off the edge of Carey's literary earth. (Also had to have a dictionary beside me for both novels, damn it all.)

The differences in organization of both books is worth mentioning: Kelly Gang uses "found documents"; the chapters are organized as "parcels"; and the chapters are sectioned by a "catalogue" of subsequent material and description of "research material's" condition. However, after the first section (introduction? Chapter?), which is a short, italicized description of Kelly's death, the narrative moves in a traditional youth-to-death arc, narrated (presumably) by Ned Kelly himself, as the "found documents" are supposedly written by him to his daughter. In many ways, this subject matter and organization remind me of Michael Ondaatje's THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BILLY THE KID. Both works focus on a country's most famous outlaw (USA: Billy; AU: Ned), takes place around the same time period, and uses "found documents" as well as the first person point of view to tell the outlaw's story, through his own eyes. However, Ondaatje's narrative is far more poetically organized, integrating more white space and lyric essay than Carey's epistolary/traditional novel (personal note: Isn't it wonderful to find an epistolary type novel that WORKS?! Exciting!!).

Oscar and Lucinda's organization embraces more of a traditional novel structure (is there a pun for that?) but is also a framed narrative of sorts. The story is being told by Oscar's great-grandson, who clearly could not possibly know all that is written within the story, as the story often is told through side-characters' thoughts and feelings. All of the chapters in O&L are titled, quite playfully, and the story itself cross-cuts between the two title characters who do not actually meet for what seems the LONGEST time. There's a great deal of dichotomies and odd pairings in this novel, a wonderful description of Anglican versus Baptist in the beginning (Oscar's father is one of my favorite characters). There is far less direct dialogue in O& L than in Kelly Gang, and of course, the reader must constantly question his/herself about the narrator, who very seldomly pops into the story to remind the reader that they are hearing a tale. Carey also has a habit of jumping to a future reference (telling readers that Lucinda will lose all her money, but be the happiest she's ever been, then coolly returning to the present story); in this way, he reminds me of Edward P Jones' omniscient narrator in THE KNOWN WORLD.

Kelly Gang lost me a bit towards the end, when I realized that I couldn't continue trusting Kelly's voice, however, it is an excellent read - challenging and charming and fun and educational and riveting and remarkable.

I have to mention that what prompted me to pick up Oscar and Lucinda was Carey's author photo: seated, leaning forward, hands clasped in front of him, with a huge grin on his face. Marvelous to find an author photo that is not some gloomy, pretentious glowering countenace with a holier-than-thou edge. Instead, Carey looks excited, thrilled, tickled even, that he has written a book. Utterly charming. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 24, 2011 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australia, 21-ce, fiction, empire-post-colonial

This book is a wonder. It's interesting that it can be so effective when its artifice is so apparent. No one really writes like this. No one really uses this bizarre amalgam of heightened vocabulary, slang, and understatement; just to read a few pages is proof enough of that. The technique is mostly a kind of enjambed, run-on sentence style with colorful Australian argot. Yet one is completely mesmerized by the book. It's pleasures as a narrative are rich and unrelenting. My heart pounds and a s...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jan 23, 2009 letterbyletter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to letterbyletter by: Elizabeth

Shelves: 2009, booker-prize, commonwealth-writers-prize

Crafting a confessionary tale in the persona of Ned Kelly, the Australian outlaw and bushranger, Peter Carey tells a terrific tale, one that is not quite a “true history,” but is all the same compelling. In a story that feels like an Irish folktale, a late 19th-century memoir and a western swashbuckler, Carey creates an alternate Kelly—-a flawed, but earnest folk hero, fighting against colonial oppression.

Setting up a narrative frame of a manuscript that never was, we are told Kelly’s story thr...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 23, 2008 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: weirdos, australian, crime

I think I actually clapped my hands with delight when I picked this one up -- it's a truly strange narrative, which is always a huge plus in the Book-of-Rachel. It's been a while since I picked up anything quite this satisfyingly weird.

I didn't know anything about the historic Ned Kelly going into this, but it turned out to be in many ways just a good old fashioned outlaw story, where the outlaw is a hero -- stealing from the rich to feed the poor. Peter Carey is a genius, rendering Ned Kelly's...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 28, 2008 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, fiction

I love a good Peter Carey book: original and fascinating stories, lusciously descriptive prose and characters bursting with wit, drive and vitality. This, I felt, was not one. Okay, by most people's standards it is excellent. My copy tells me that it won the 2001 Booker Prize, so they all thought it was great. Perhaps my expectations are too high. Oscar and Lucinda was fantastic, but not as good as Illywacker. Similarly, 'Kelly Gang' is good, but not as good as 'My Life as a Fake' - to my mind c...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 30, 2008 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2005, historical-fiction, outlaws, favorite-books

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book; in fact, I was pretty sure I was going to hate it. I flipped through it before sitting down to read it and noticed the lack of punctuation and the weak grammar. Then, I actually started reading it and could barely put the book down. While the "True History" is anything but, Carey does a magnificent job capturing the voice of Ned Kelly, the Australian bushranger who later on became a national hero despite his criminal leanings. Kelly is depicted as a s...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 09, 2011 Jay F rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jay F by: Man Booker 2001 Winner

Shelves: literature-english-language

I knew nothing about Ned Kelly and meeting him in this fictionalized account was certainly not painful. Carey’s writing was solid: he had an ear for what appears as the authentic language of the period and was able to sustain that language to the story’s end. The characters also were well enough drawn. And the novel’s conceit—that we were reading thirteen parcels of multiple sheets of paper handwritten by Kelley to his fictional daughter chronicling his life and time—was effective. My problem wa...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 29, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-nonfiction

This book tells the story of infamous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly (sort of the Australian Jesse James, for comparison's sake).

The writing style is indeed challenging, but I think the subject matter really makes up for it. Ned's life is very compelling. He comes across as a mostly decent, good-hearted human being who ends up as an outlaw due to the extreme anti-Irish sentiment in Australia at the time and lack of other opportunity afforded to him as a result.

I actually found the political undercu...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 03, 2008 Christie Hall rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who enjoy dialects and history buffs

Shelves: non-fiction-pleasure-reading

This book struck me as hillarious at first. It reads like a novel but it is clearly based in historical fact. The fact that it also reads like a low language proficient diary makes in intriguing to watch the character's language and literacy skills expand over his lifetime. What a challenge to read! And yet, who couldn't love a book that uses the word "adjectival" every other word. Seriously, I think it would have only been a novella if we hadn't had that one word. Three words describe this: ent...more

1 like · like · see review

May 23, 2013 Glen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maybe I'm just burned out on stories about criminals, even misunderstood and reluctant ones such as Ned Kelly is portrayed to be in this book, but I just didn't love this novel the way some people apparently did since it won the Booker Prize. For one thing I thought it was too long. I thought the "I'm not really a criminal, I'm a persecuted Irishman living in a country that should know better" motif was overdone, and the use of the word "adjectival" in places where either the F-bomb or "goddamne...more

like · see review

Nov 05, 2012 Ben Thurley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Carey's Booker award-winning novel is an earthy, captivating recitation of the legend of Australia's most famous bushranger (outlaw), Ned Kelly. In a masterstroke of literary ventriloquism, the novel is narrated in Kelly's blunt, inelegant voice and a kind of profane and ragged poetry flows from the page.

The novel opens with an account of the famous shoot-out near Glenrowan where Ned Kelly – in his cast-iron armour and helmet –was finally captured, shot in the legs by police. It then tells his s...more Carey's Booker award-winning novel is an earthy, captivating recitation of the legend of Australia's most famous bushranger (outlaw), Ned Kelly. In a masterstroke of literary ventriloquism, the novel is narrated in Kelly's blunt, inelegant voice and a kind of profane and ragged poetry flows from the page.

The novel opens with an account of the famous shoot-out near Glenrowan where Ned Kelly – in his cast-iron armour and helmet – was finally captured, shot in the legs by police. It then tells his story, traces his history of run-ins with the police, and with indifferent and rapacious authorities. The class and ethnic differences, English and Irish, landowner and labourer, that were imported whole into the Australian colonies from the mother country are starkly illuminated in countless run-ins with police, false accusations, threats and indignities imposed by the authorities and landowners on the Kelly family. There's a grim inevitability to Kelly's formation, and eventual execution, as bushranger.

It's hard to pick a favourite passage, so I'll just pick one almost at random. A passage like the following highlights the fierce loyalty that Kelly had to family as well as the vulnerability and poverty of many Irish settlers. The understated strength of the diction, the barely-thereness of punctuation, both contribute to a sense of urgency and menace as Kelly rides to bring back his mother's lover. Simple adjectives, "reptile eyes", glint like malevolent jewels in the plain prose.

Maggie Maggie fetch Bill back.
Maggie wouldnt budge so my mother turned to me her cheeks was wet and shining.
Don't go Maggie said.
You effing get him cried my mother if you don't do nothing else for me do this. you go get him and say you're sorry. We'll starve without his wages.
Then we heard a horse galloping full tilt down the track my mother collapsed onto the floor in great torment.
He's the father of my babe cried she.
Very well I said I'll fetch the mongrel.
There was a good moon so I found him easy enough he were no longer galloping but walking his horse in the direction of his employment.
I told him my mother had asked me to apologise and he would be wise to give her that impression. For my own part I could only say that if he ever abandoned her I would come and shoot him while he slept.
I saw his reptile eyes in the moonlight staring at me. He didnt say a word but together we turned riding slowly back towards my home.

If I had to pick just one Australian novel to recommend, this would probably be it.(less)

like · see review

Aug 04, 2012 Satch rated it 5 of 5 stars

I wrote this review for my International Fiction Book Club:
The International Fiction Book Club met Wednesday, March 21st to discuss the novel by Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang. A success on several levels, “True History” achieves the status of tour de force because of the insight gained from hearing the voice of the most notorious bushranger of nineteenth century Australia tell his side of the story. If you’ve never heard of Ned Kelly, just imagine a cross of the mythologies built...more

like · see review

Jul 15, 2012 Bob Pearson rated it 4 of 5 stars

With this book, Peter Carey won his second Booker Prize, only one of two authors who have ever done so. It is a saga that sounds like Billy the Kid or Jesse James, but with a background of massive oppression of the Irish in Australia. Written as if it were a diary to a daughter by the true love of his life, a young prostitute, we see Kelly's life unfold as he would have seen it and with all the characters taking their roles in his narrative as he would have it, not as they would, of course. It i...more

like · see review

May 20, 2012 Rosemarie Herbert rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been crossposted from my blog Review from Rose's Book Reviews Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me.

This novel is metafictional - Carey has taken the facts and then changed them to suit the story if it had really happened. Instead of Ned Kelly being an unforgivable highway robber, he is a painted more as a lovable modern day Robin Hood in a way. He is set on the pathway to criminality by his mother, trying to support a huge family of Irish children with no support fro...more This review has been crossposted from my blog Review from Rose's Book Reviews Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me.

This novel is metafictional - Carey has taken the facts and then changed them to suit the story if it had really happened. Instead of Ned Kelly being an unforgivable highway robber, he is a painted more as a lovable modern day Robin Hood in a way. He is set on the pathway to criminality by his mother, trying to support a huge family of Irish children with no support from Ned's father.

The language of this book is hard to get into, as Carey attempts to capture the language of Ned Kelly back in the early days of Australian history. The novel is sectioned according to where Ned's correspondence comes from. As always, Carey's writing challenges conventions.

This book is relevant to anyone who has an interest in Ned Kelly. Sure, you aren't going to get historical facts out of it, but if you have someone who hates Australian literature (and for good reason!) or don't know very much about our 'national icon', then this is a great book to introduce them to it.

This isn't a novel I would read of my own volition, this was yet another literature text. It was one of the more enjoyable ones to read, surprisingly since it was Australian literature! However, the language usage, although 'authentic', was very offputting for me.

If you had to pick a Peter Carey to read out of this and Collected Stories, I'd pick this one over it. Collected Stories gives you a nice variety, but it's all very deep and meaningful. The Kelly Gang is slightly more lighthearted, and infinitely easier reading.

It is very sensitively written, and doesn't contain any swearing, though of course Ned comes up with his own adjectival curses! It's likely suitable for teens, and certainly for adults.

As with many books for my literature classes, I didn't purchase this book, rather I borrowed it from my local library. I don't think I would reread for pleasure, although others may feel differently.(less)

like · see review

Mar 23, 2012 Susan Emmet rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved Peter Carey's well-researched novel about Edward (Ned) Kelly, reviled by police and politicos and revered by poor Irish in the Australian Victoria region.
Divisible in 13 parts or "parcels," Ned writes to inform his daughter of his truth and life. She is born to Mary Hearn in San Francisco months before Kelly and his band of brothers are killed in an inferno while clad in the iron Monitor suits. Kelly was hanged without gaining his best wish: to free his mother from jail and earn some res...more

like · see review

Mar 15, 2012 Nadiarjam rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People interested in history, Australia or Flashman novels

This book put me in mind of Loilita or Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. A romanticised version of the life of a ruffian and a killer where you find yourself sympathising for the criminal, but then start to question yourself. Told in the first person, Ned Kelly is the handsome, wild, bushranger who's family are picked on by corrupt police, who are unfairly treated compared to the Protestant Irish settlers of Australia. A man who doesn't choose his outlaw path, but who is sucked into it by circ...more

like · see review

Nov 05, 2011 Edy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Buku ini merupakan novel yang diangkat dari kisah nyata Ned Kelly (1855-1880), seorang pemuda yang dianggap sebagai perampok dan pembunuh di Negara bagian Victoria – Australia. Dari dokumen yang ditulis oleh Ned Kelly yang ditujukan kepada politisi setempat untuk meminta keadilan, maupun dokumen yang ditulis oleh Ned Kelly untuk anaknya yang tidak pernah dilihat dan ditimangnya, Peter Carey mengembangkannya menjadi sebuah novel.

Ned Kelly dilahirkan tahun 1855 dari keluarga imigran Irlandia yang...more Buku ini merupakan novel yang diangkat dari kisah nyata Ned Kelly (1855-1880), seorang pemuda yang dianggap sebagai perampok dan pembunuh di Negara bagian Victoria – Australia. Dari dokumen yang ditulis oleh Ned Kelly yang ditujukan kepada politisi setempat untuk meminta keadilan, maupun dokumen yang ditulis oleh Ned Kelly untuk anaknya yang tidak pernah dilihat dan ditimangnya, Peter Carey mengembangkannya menjadi sebuah novel.

Ned Kelly dilahirkan tahun 1855 dari keluarga imigran Irlandia yang memegang teguh ajaran Katholik dan mempunyai solidaritas tinggi. Ned Kelly mempunyai beberapa saudara perempuan dan laki-laki. Sejak kecil dia sudah ditempa dengan kerja keras karena ayahnya dipenjara dan dia harus membantu keluarga menyiapkan ladang yang diolah dari rimba. Sejak usia 12 tahun, dia terpaksa keluar dari sekolah dan mengambil alih kegiatan keluarga di bidang pertanian karena ayahnya dipenjara dan meninggal.

Dalam perjuangannya tersebut keluarga Kelly sering ditipu oleh para tuan tanah sehingga kondisinya memburuk. Ned Kelly yang sangat menyayangi ibunya kemudian mengambil alih peran kepala keluarga di pundaknya. Di tengah keputus asaan ibunya, Ned Kelly dalam usia 14 tahun oleh ibunya kemudian dimagangkan kepada Harry Power yang merupakan bushranger atau perampok di padang belantara Australia. Harry Power sebagai perampok mempunyai sikap seperti RobinHood dimana dia merampok dan kemudian hasilnya sebagian dibagikan kepada warga miskin. Oleh karenanya dia sangat dicintaioleh warga miskin yang dengan sekarela memberikan perlindungan kepada Harry Power dari kejaran Polisi.

Karena berselisih paham, akhirnya Ned Kelly berpisah dari Harry Power. Harry akhirnya tertangkap polisi karena ada seorang warga yang berkhianat. Hal ini membawa pengaruh karena Ned dituduh sebagai pihak yang membocorkan keberadaan Harry kepada polisi. Sifat pengkhianat ini merupakan hal yang sangat ditabukan oleh masyarakat Irlandia.

Ned Kelly kemudian berusaha membangun kembali lahan pertaniannya. Namun gangguan dating silih berganti. Ayah tirinya dan adik iparnya berkhianat dan menelantarkan ibu dan adik perempuannya. Kemarahannya makin memuncak ketika ibunya dipenjara karena difitnah orang. Ned kemudian mengangkat senjata beserta adiknya Dan serta dua sahabat yakni Joe Byrne dan Steve Hart. Mereka kemudian melakukan perampokan2 terhadap tuan tanah dan bank serta membagikan hasilnya kepada warga-warga miskin di sekitarnya. Aksi Heroik Kelly Gang ini kemudian menumbuhkan simpati masyarakat di banyak tempat yang kemudian melindunginya.

Namun karena adanya pengkhianatan oleh seorang warga, Ned Kelly akhirnya tertangkap dan dihukum mati. Permintaan terakhir kali agar pengadilan membebaskan ibunya dan memberikan jasad kepada ibunya untuk dikubur secara layakpun tidak dipenuhi oleh pemerintah kolonialis Inggris saat itu…. …

Sebagai sebuah buku untuk perintang waktu, novel ini cukup menarik. Kalaupun ada kekurangan hanyalah factor bahasa yang seringkali kurang lugas (mungkin factor penterjemahan). Meski demikian kendala tersebut tidak terlalu mengganggu....
(less)

like · see review

Jul 13, 2011 Kenneth rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is perfect for folks who like Westerns but have a high appreciation for poetic, Romantic prose, and an equally high tolerance for run-on sentences and a turn-of-the-century Australian wilderness dialect. The conceit of the book is that it is a compilation of historical documents relating to the life of Australia's infamous Ned Kelly -- most of the book is told through Ned's diaries, which are presented with bibliographic headers that detail the document's page size, material and proven...more

like · see review

Apr 23, 2011 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ned Kelly in Australia occupies a standing similar to Jessie James in the U. S., a romanticized 19th Century Outlaw. Carey won his third Booker Prize for the novel in 2001.

Carey brings Ned Kelly to life by using a fictional letter written by Kelly to his infant daughter. Kelly has trouble with grammar and Carey faithfully records his mistakes making the long letter realistic. Kelly also has a fine appreciation for detail adding further realism. He realizes that he is a murderer and a bank robber...more Ned Kelly in Australia occupies a standing similar to Jessie James in the U. S., a romanticized 19th Century Outlaw. Carey won his third Booker Prize for the novel in 2001.

Carey brings Ned Kelly to life by using a fictional letter written by Kelly to his infant daughter. Kelly has trouble with grammar and Carey faithfully records his mistakes making the long letter realistic. Kelly also has a fine appreciation for detail adding further realism. He realizes that he is a murderer and a bank robber and the letter provides a means for justifying his actions. Actually, the letter is 13 parcels of papers, some in rough shape, which an unknown person (Carey) puts together in chronological order.

Ned's mother and father arrived in Australia from Ireland. They were poverty stricken farmers with an ever growing family. After being widowed, Mrs. Kelly was able to become a selector, very similar to a homesteader in the U. S. Life for the family was hard but they survived by raising cattle and horses plus running an illegal liquor operation. At age 14 Mrs. Kelly apprenticed Ned to an outlaw to learn the trade, a bushranger.

In spite of his apprenticeship, Ned tries to go straight by working the family farm, working at a saw mill and raising horses. According to Ned the police (the tarps) were cowardly, corrupt and incompetent. They were supported by an equally corrupt and incompetent justice system.

Kelly writes that he was gradually forced into crime and forming a gang by the police. Throughout his many exploits and being pursued, he remains extremely loyal to his family, especially his mother and younger brother, Dan.

Mother Kelly is jailed and Ned attempts to free her by writing to the justice authorities explaining her innocence. His letters are ignored. In frustration he decides to break into the prison and free her. As protection, he designs an iron hood based on his understanding of the ironclads in the U. S. Civil War. The design is faulty in that it does not cover his entire body. He is shot, captured and hung.

The Booker Prized is well deserved the novel is immangitive, realistic and its main character is a family loving, romanticized outlaw.
(less)

like · see review

Feb 05, 2011 Peter Walton-Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a cool book. It looks like it is a biography but it is nothing of the sort. The author has placed himself as the discoverer/collector of a variety of documents written by Ned Kelly. He even gives each of these documents a life by describing their physical state in some detail. In fact only one genuine document written by Ned Kelly exists, the "Jerilderie Letter" (http://www.nedkellysworld.com.au/hist...). This alone gives a great insight to the man and I guess it also gave great license...more

like · see review

Oct 11, 2010 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, prize-winners

I picked this up in Melbourne after learning about Kelly at the old gaol (which is a really great way to spend an afternoon if you're in the neighbourhood). My version has a minimal cover with sandy overlapping cut outs of a head and the armour but unfortunately Goodreads can't find it so I've picked the above.

Told through a series of 'discovered documents' detailing Kelly's life from impoverished youngster right up until his folk-antihero/bushranger death the story moves swiftly. Punctuation g...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 28, 2010 Simon Reid rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As this novel has it, thirteen parcels of Ned Kelly's own writings discovered after his death chart the turbulent life of the famous Australian horse-thief, murderer and folk hero. That the book alleges to contain his voice is quite affecting by the end, as the outlaw is convinced that his words on a page, scrawled or printed, will have the power to save his sorry neck.

Carey clearly put a tremendous amount of research in, and he channels Ned convincingly with his rough, sprawling sentences, litt...more

like · see review

Jun 19, 2009 Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ htgkvkkviholmvobsvzighxofyyzmw rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-me-mine, a-day-in-the-life, maxwell-s-silver-hammer

Bagi para pecinta novel In Cold Blood Blood-nya Truman Capote, pasti bakal juga suka dengan novel ini. Termasuk saya ;)

Soalnya cerita keduanya sangat mirip. Sama-sama diangkat dari kisah nyata, dan menceritakan para pembunuh dan penjahat terkejam. Namun uniknya, para penjahat paling sadis pun bisa ditampilkan dalam sosok yang manusiawi. Istilah Serieus Band-nya, "Pembunuh juga manusia, punya rasa, punya hati."

Soalnya, saat membaca In Cold Blood Blood, sekejam apapun penjahatnya (yang membantai s...more Bagi para pecinta novel In Cold Blood Blood-nya Truman Capote, pasti bakal juga suka dengan novel ini. Termasuk saya ;)

Soalnya cerita keduanya sangat mirip. Sama-sama diangkat dari kisah nyata, dan menceritakan para pembunuh dan penjahat terkejam. Namun uniknya, para penjahat paling sadis pun bisa ditampilkan dalam sosok yang manusiawi. Istilah Serieus Band-nya, "Pembunuh juga manusia, punya rasa, punya hati."

Soalnya, saat membaca In Cold Blood Blood, sekejam apapun penjahatnya (yang membantai satu keluarga demi uang beberapa dollar), anehnya, saya malah 'jatuh hati' pada tokoh penjahatnya, si Richard 'Dick' Hickock dan Perry Edward XD. Apakah dengan demikian saya juga seorang psikopat? :'(

Dan, pas membaca novel ini, saya juga 'jatuh hati' pada penjahat yang dikutuk oleh seantero benua Australia, Edward 'Ned' Kelly. Di samping sifatnya yang suka membunuh dan merampok dia juga seorang pahlawan. Bak cerita Robin Hood dia merampok dan membunuh demi rakyatnya. Tak heran, selain dikutuk, dia juga dipuja rakyat jelata sebagai pahlawan. Jarang ada tokoh cerita yang bisa menimbulkan efek kekagumam sekaligus kengerian.

Seperti halnya In Cold Blood Blood, (meski pendekatan Truman Capote lebih tajam), True History of the Kelly Gang, menceritakan kehidupan tokoh penjahat dan aksi sadis mereka. Semua diceritakan secara detail yang menimbulkan kengerian sekaligus menyentuh yang menimbulkan keharuan. Benar-benar cerita yang layak untuk disimak. Tak heran kedua buku ini mendapat sambutan luar biasa sekaligus membawa para penulisnya ke ambang kemasyuharan yang menjadikan mereka sebagai legenda penulis psikologi-kriminal. Jika buku In Cold Blood Blood dinobatkan sebagi 100 Buku Terbaik Sepanjang Masa versi Time dan penghargaan Edgar Award, maka True History of the Kelly Gang diganjar dengan penghargaan prestisius, The Booker Prixe!

Secara memukau, Carey menjelajahi sisi paling gelap dalam diri seorang penjahat kejam sehingga si penjahat bisa berbuat sadis. Di lain pihak, Carey juga menyentuh sisi paling sensitif dari seorang manusia, hati nurani. Ini menjadikan mengapa penjahat terkejam pun tidak bisa disebut binatang. Manusia terjahat pun tetaplah manusia. Mereka bukan sesosok Iblis yang dilahirkan untuk jadi jahat. Manusia, dilahirkan untuk menjadi manusia yang baik meski kadang dia melenceng dari 'jalan lurus' tersebut sehingga jadi penjahat.

Oya, ada bagian menyentuh di novel ini saat si Ned Kelly akan digantung. Bersiaplah bawa tisu karena kemungkinan besar Anda akan . Apalagi, penceritaan novel ini didasarkan pada surat-surat Sang Penjahat yang ditujukan bagi anak perempuan yang tak pernah dilihatnya... Mendengar ini saja kita bisa sudah bisa menebak, cerita ini akan menggetarkan hati :)

So, saran saya, baik itu True History of the Kelly Gang maupun In Cold Blood Blood, adalah karya-karya yang layak Anda baca :)
Aapalgi keduanya ada dalam daftar 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die ;) (less)

1 like · like · see review

Jun 05, 2009 Natalia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Meh.

Maybe this is more of a boy book, but I just couldn't really get into it. That might also have something to do with the fact that it's one of those stories where you already know how it's going to end. I absolutely *loved* Carey's "Oscar and Lucinda," but this one failed to enthrall me. I think one of the principle achievements of this book is Carey's ability to get so deeply into the voice of his character, which is impressive, but also the reason I didn't enjoy it as much. It's written in...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the greatest Australian novel ever written. A big statement of course, but one well merited. Not only did it win the Booker Prize, but also the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2001.

Don't be fooled by the title, it's actually a work of fiction. Written from the perspective of Ned Kelly, one of Australia's most well-known folk 'heroes', it portrays life in Victoria during settlement days under the corrupt influence of the police.

The most startling attribute of this novel is Carey's use of c...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Carey's perfect emotional pitch	12	32	May 10, 2012 05:58am
Historical Fiction	1	20	Apr 25, 2011 05:50pm

combine
Other Editions (41)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

141 users

Cultural > Australia

98 users

Mystery > Crime

25 users

Literature

25 users

Novels

21 users

Literary Fiction

18 users

Book Club

17 users

Contemporary

13 users

Modern

8 users

Academic > School

7 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Peter Carey

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arriv...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.

In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.

For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.

After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.

From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.

In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.

He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.

In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
(less)

More about Peter Carey...

Books by Peter Carey

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About True History of t...

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from True History of the Ke...

“after we ate we was silent on our blankets looking out across the mighty Great Divide I never seen this country before it were like a fairy story landscape the clear and windy skies was filled with diamonds the jagged black outlines of the ranges were a panorama.

You're going to ride a horse across all that.

I know.

He laughed and he were right I knew nothing of what lay ahead.

See that there he pointed. That is called the Crosscut Saw and that one is Mount Speculation and yonder is Mount Buggery and that other is Mount Despair did you know that?

No Harry.

You will and you'll be sorry.” — 2 people liked it

“If you know the country he said then you will be a wild colonial boy forever” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: True History of the Kelly Gang
avg rating	preview: True History of the Kelly Gang Goodreads rating: 3.78 (7485 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110090.True_History_of_the_Kelly_Gang?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320404599l/110090.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110090.True_History_of_the_Kelly_Gang?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey[/url]

True History of the Kelly Gang

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website