Bush Studies

by Barbara Baynton

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Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Australia, Fiction, Historical, Literature, 20th Century

166 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 1902

About the author

The child of Irish immigrants to Australia, Baynton promoted a version of her birth as the daughter of minor nobility. Her literary career began after her second marriage in 1890, to a retired surgeon twice her age. Baynton's short stories challenged the traditional 19th century view of colonial life in the Australian outback, by raising the plight of women and the dispossessed. The short story collection "Bush Studies" is routinely studied in Australian schools.

After the death of her husband, Baynton invested in the stock market and became chairman of the Law Book Company of Australasia, during which time she published her only novel, "Human Toll".

In 1921, Baynton married her third husband, the 5th Baron Headley, a convert to Islam and a claimant to the throne of Albania. The marriage suffered issues early; Baynton spent her final years in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak.

Reviews

[Sub_zero]

«Lo que descubrió allí dentro, la imagen de aquel perro con las costillas rotas tras lo que parecía haber sido una lucha delirante contra el horror, y el reproche que vio en sus ojos salvajes, era un recuerdo que el hombre no estaba dispuesto a compartir con ella».

Barbara Baynton (Scone, 1857) es otra de esas autoras «redescubiertas» que, por desgracia, no han obtenido reconocimiento literario hasta muchas décadas después de su muerte. En el caso de Baynton, los motivos se deben al carácter rebelde y disonante de su obra, muy alejada de la visión bucólica y edulcorada, por no decir falsa, que sus coetáneos trataban de proyectar acerca del medio rural australiano. Los seis relatos reunidos en Estudios de lo salvaje muestran una realidad que poco o nada tiene que ver con el naturalismo romántico. Adentrarse en la obra de Baynton supone estar expuesto a las inclemencias de la meteorología y del terreno, un entorno feroz e inhóspito en el que los personajes, en su mayoría mujeres, se desenvuelven a duras penas mientras luchan por no caer víctimas de un arrollador clima de violencia.

Si bien confluyen en una visión aciaga y sin paliativos de la vida en el campo —que deja, por cierto, en peor lugar a los hombres que a las bestias—, las historias que conforman Estudios de lo salvaje ofrecen una amplia variedad de combinaciones narrativas en las que Baynton juega hábilmente con el tono del relato. Así, encontramos en «La soñadora», en el que una joven se enfrenta a todo tipo de amenazas y obstáculos en el camino de vuelta a casa, un inquietante devaneo hacia el gótico que choca de frente con el toque humorístico, casi paródico, de «Una iglesia en la maleza», en el que los miembros de una comunidad rural hacen alarde de su hospitalidad mientras discuten asuntos cotidianos en pleno oficio religioso.

«Billy Skywonkie», por otro lado, es un punzante a la vez que sutil ejercicio de denuncia social en el que se pone de manifiesto la explotación sexual de la que eran objeto las mujeres aborígenes o mestizas de la época. De hecho, las mujeres en general no salen muy bien paradas en las historias de Barbara Baynton. Relatos como «La compañera de Squaker» o «El instrumento elegido», dos de los más estremecedores e implacables del conjunto, son quizá la mejor prueba de ello. En el primero asistimos al lento pero imparable declive de una campesina que, tras sufrir un aparatoso accidente que la deja inválida, queda a merced de un hombre violento y déspota. En el segundo, otra mujer cae víctima de la demoledora brutalidad masculina por culpa de un fanático que la confunde con la aparición de una virgen, acarreándole consecuencias devastadoras.

Dura, agreste, sin miramientos de ninguna clase. En la literatura de Barbara Baynton no hay espacio para concesiones ni despliegues de misericordia. Su retrato feroz del bush australiano puede resultar todo lo innovador y revolucionario que se quiera, pero no oculta el hecho de que a veces resulta arduo dilucidar un hilo argumental entre la maleza narrativa que abunda a lo largo de la obra. Estudios de lo salvaje es una colección interesante pero irregular, con relatos sobresalientes que coinciden con los tramos más oscuros del libro y otros menos brillantes cuya esencia se diluye en observaciones y diálogos más bien dispersos. La recuperación de Barbara Baynton supone, sin ninguna duda, una empresa valiente y audaz, aunque no sé si necesaria.

[PatR]

Hay relatos realmente magníficos y otros en los que el ritmo decae bastante. Sin embargo, es un libro que merece la pena. Aborda la vida en el interior de Australia y su lado más duro, especialmente para las mujeres y los niños, quienes convivien de igual manera con parajes salvajes y parejas agresivas.
Llama bastante la atención la valentía y la honestidad de Baynton, más teniendo en cuenta el momento en que estos relatos fueron publicados.

[Calzean]

A set of tales written in the late 1890s on life in the Australian bush. They focus on the harsh and unforgiving lives of various women. Loneliness, isolation, dangers from the elements and danger from men. The writing is a bit mixed - from very good to a bit below par. But overall it is a classic of Australian early literature.

[Timons Esaias]

A mention in McSweeney's got me to find a copy of Bush Studies, a founding classic of Australian Literature, though I'd probably heard it mentioned once or twice in my life. I'm glad I followed up, because, while these stories are a form of torture, I am historically interested in fiction of this period. And I'm glad because these are strong pieces.

Poe was one of her admitted influences, and that's clear; but these aren't supernatural stories. The ominousness and approach reminds me of Stephen Crane, and I suspect Crane's realism (or that of similar writers of the period) may have played a role.

One of the best pieces, "Bush Church", has no actual plot. It's a social satire, following the arrival of a minister in the outback, to do a christening, and whatever other necessary duties are needed; the circuit preacher's rounds. Half the locals think he's a spy for the major landowners, or the taxman, and so they show up at the service with their legal documents in hand. None of them are paying attention, most of them are grabbing food from the hostess (folks help themselves to the padre's dinner) or otherwise expressing basic barbarity. It is a scathing presentation of everyone involved. And there's only one death, Polly, but we don't ever quite find out who Polly was. She died carrying water too far in the heat.

In the rest of the stories the torture is the overwhelming suspense; but in "Bush Church" it's the excruciating misbehavior of everybody. One cringes constantly, hoping that somehow a story will emerge, or that something will reward the hostess for her embarrassment.

Mostly the stories have to do with death, and the threat of assault by outsiders. For only six short stories, the body count of this collection is pretty high. (Interestingly, Baynton couldn't get it published in Australia, so it came out in Great Britain, where it provided a baseline impression of the Australian outback for a couple of generations.)

The other writer I'd compare these pieces to is Flannery O'Connor, whose acerbic, satirical tone is similar; and also her use of local dialect. The bush lingo is rather thick in this volume, which will probably require some use of Google for modern readers, especially American readers, whose Australian vocabulary is generally limited to "shrimp" and "barbie."

In this edition there's a biography of Baynton by a grandson, and it's a stitch. It starts with the tale of her mother voyaging from Belfast to Australia with her new husband, and dumping him for an officer of the Bengal Lancers on the way. This is followed by the author's birth, three upwardly mobile marriages bringing her up to Baroness by the end, with fast cars and fancy houses everywhere. Oh, and not much writing. Her fame rests on this collection of six short stories, one novel, and two more stories that were later tacked on to this collection (not very successfully, it seems). Otherwise she did some journeyman journalism, and mostly ditched it once she'd leveraged her fame into fortune. Which is an interesting enough bio, but it turns out that she made the early part up. She shaved five years off her age, and gave herself different parents, in order to land the governess job that eventually led to a coronet on her linens; so even the grandson only knew the half of it.

[Rocio]

Un libro que me aburrió muchísimo. Me costó terminarlo. No pasa nada interesante.
Te narra la historia de mujeres, temática que me gusta. Por desgracia este no fue el caso. Lo contó de una manera que no fue de mi agradó.
Completamente olvidable. No me voy acordar de mucho al pasar el tiempo. De hecho ya se me olvidaron algunas cosas. No lo recomiendo para nada.

[motivoslobos]

Estudios de los salvaje es una compilación de seis cuentos que nos muestran la lucha de la mujer por la supervivencia tal como lo dice el título en "lo salvaje" de Australia. En él encontramos ciertos temas recurrentes: la maternidad y sus terrores, la infidelidad de los hombres y su ferocidad con los demás, el aislamiento, el racismo, las luchas por la posesión de la tierra y la presencia de una naturaleza inclemente que influye en las reacciones tanto físicas como emocionales de los personajes.

Son relatos crudos y en ocasiones sin un sentido que pueden agotarte en la lectura y otros muy livianos que en general sugieren al lector dar su propia interpretación.

Fue un buen desafío.

PD. Lean el posfacio.

[Neale]

Reading the reviews on this page it is evident that ‘Bush Studies’ suffers somewhat from the curse of being a set text, perhaps even a weapon in a literary studies debate – a female alternative to the very male world of Australian bush writing, as exemplified by Henry Lawson.

It certainly fulfils this role well – it seems that Baynton herself saw the book partly in those terms - but it would be a shame if this detracted from its intrinsic worth. I think the book is best described by its title. It is a set of ‘studies’, as with ‘etudes’ in music – not necessarily fully formed works but one-off exercises in exploring a certain mood or subject.

What makes the stories interesting is the tension between what is conventional and what is unconventional. If these were musical studies they would be Victorian parlour ballads into which a much spikier and more atonal music keeps breaking.

(Publication by Text Classics, with an introduction by Helen Garner, should bring the book to a wider audience - as it did to me - but it's a shame the cover is pretty ghastly...)

[Debbie]

First published in 1902, Bush Studies is a collection of short stories set in the Australian outback of her day. While the stories certainly convey the harsh conditions, I felt that Baynton made scathing commentary on the harsh, crude and vulgar behaviour particularly of the men, and particularly toward women.

I found Scrammy ‘And and The Chosen Vessel to be especially compelling, and if I taught high-school literature would want to include them in my curriculum, regardless of where I was teaching.

Having met only the “jolly swagman’ of Waltzing Matilda, I had my eyes opened wide.

Read this if: (obviously) you want to find out about life in the outback at the end of the 19th century; or you are interested in the history of women’s role in Australian or global society. 4½ stars

[Ronnie]

A menacing, gothic little book that reads to me as the horrifying flip side of My Brilliant Career – a dark and unflinching examination of women’s lives in the early colonial Australian bush. These half-dozen stories have their strong and weak points, but at their peak (Squeaker’s Mate and The Chosen Vessel are the best, in my opinion) they are truly gripping and horrifying. Helen Garner’s introduction to the Text Classics edition is, as you’d expect, essential.

[Lisa]

This book was provided for review by Sydney University Press, and I read it for the Classics Challenge. Published in 1902, it presents a feminist perspective about 19th century Australian bush life and although aspects of it are a bit quaint, it's interesting to read. To see my review, see http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200...
Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

[Gretel]

Apart from A Dreamer and The Chosen Vessel I found the stories quite hard to get into and slow moving. When the description of the outback is good it is really good with lots of lively imagery, but Baynton got a little bit carried away in places, both with that and the use of commas.

[Marina]

I've only read The Chosen Vessel, but I have to say I REALLY liked it, the intertextuality of the work and all the symbolysm. Baynton was truly a master in her time.

[Text Publishing]

‘So precise, so complete, with such insight into detail and such force of statement, it ranks with the masterpieces of realism in any language.’
Bulletin

[Rachel Stigter]

read for Australian Literature subject. not really my cup of tea and a bit difficult to get through.

[Sara Solomando]

Cogí de la biblioteca “Estudios de lo salvaje” por la portada, pensando que tendría que ver, no me preguntes por qué, con dibujo, pintura. Desde que recuperé mi relación con el dibujo tengo épocas en que me obsesiono por aprender sobre trazos, mezclas, planos, texturas, y siento un interés especial por la naturaleza. Esta portada y el título me parecieron, por tanto, de lo más sugerente. Si hubiese perdido un minuto en leer las solapas quizás habría abierto el libro con una curiosidad diferente. Presentan a la autora como una mentirosa, una tramposa, una mujer que se inventó un pasado para tener un futuro diferente. Lo bueno de descubrirlo después de leer el libro es que aún comprendes y admiras más a esta tipa, Barbara Baynton.

A través de unos pocos relatos, Baynton, dibuja un retrato tan fascinante como terrorífico de los primeros colonos de la Australia profunda, la del interior. Construye un mundo en el que la sordidez de los habitantes de esas tierras lo ocupa todo. Hombres que están muy lejos del orgullo y honor que proclamaban sus lazos con los ingleses. Borrachos, maltratadores, cobardes, tramposos, racistas, abusadores de los más débiles, especialmente niños y mujeres.

Habla Barbara Baynton de tierras inhóspitas, que paradójicamente eran lo menos peligroso para las mujeres que las habitaban, porque para ellas, la mayor amenaza son los hombres. Hombres rastreros, violentos, grotescos, sórdidos, buscafortunas sin escrúpulos para los que solo había dos tipos de mujeres: las esposas-madres y las prostitutas. Y ninguna valía su respeto o afecto. Son ellas las verdaderas estudiantes de lo salvaje porque son ellas las que tienen que que reconocer en su entorno todo lo peligroso que las rodea, empezando por sus parejas ( “Más de una vez pensó que debería vestir al bebé y largarse de allí en busca de su marido. Pero en el pasado, cuando se había atrevido a hablar con él de los peligros a los que quedaba expuesta cada vez que la dejaba sola, él se había reído de ella y la había ridiculizado. Le decía sin la menor delicadeza que no hacía falta que se diera tantos aires porque nadie iba a querer irse con ella.”). Hombres infieles, bárbaros, feroces. Hombres racistas obsesionados por poseer una tierra llena de terrores, serpientes, dingos, animales salvajes y amenazantes.
Mujeres muy diferentes en cada relato pero que comparten características comunes: la resistencia, la estupefacción, la incredulidad, el miedo. Sus casas no son hogares, no hay en ellos espacio para sentirse protegidas y a salvo. Solo pueden confiar en los perros, leales y protectores y también víctimas. Sus compañeros en los momentos de auténtico terror y pesadilla.
Pero no solo describe Baynton a esos habitantes, en este libro de seis relatos tan importantes como esos protagonistas es el lugar geográfico donde se asientan: el interior del pais, un territorio indómito, la zona más desértica, donde se fueron estableciendo exconvictos, desarrapados que tenían hijos mugrientos que pasaban hambre. Un paisaje árido, donde te asfixia el sol, te apremia la sed, el polvo te satura y se pega a las narinas. Una joya de libro que habla del siglo XIX y también del XXI.

[Laura]

Estoy realmente contenta y fascinada por haberle dado una oportunidad a este libro y por lo que me he encontrado dentro de él.
El libro contiene seis relatos (cuatro de los cuales me encantaron, uno que no me gustó nada y otro que me dio bastante igual) y un posfacio o prólogo que considero tan bueno y completo que creo que aumenta el valor literario del libro si es que eso es posible. En él se analiza la vida de la autora, Barbara Baynton, y se analizan los temas recurrentes en todos los relatos: crítica al machismo y al racismo, la naturaleza inhóspita en la que se ambientan todos los cuentos y el comportamiento vago y ególatra de los hombres que rodean a las mujeres protagonistas.
Si hay algo que me ha gustado es poder ver la perspectiva de las mujeres en un lugar y época que se tiene idealizado. Casi todas las novelas o relatos que conozco ambientados en Australia en la misma fecha están escritos por autores y solo relatan el papel de los hombres en esta sociedad. No digo que los hombres no deban escribir, ni mucho menos, pero me llama la atención lo certera que es esta novela retratando la sociedad. Un autor solo escribía sobre los de su mismo género y sus vidas porque las mujeres eran prácticamente esclavas de los hombres de su vida y no las veían de otra forma. Por eso me parece tan importante rescatar obras escritas por mujeres que muestren la sociedad desde otro prisma.
En resumen, me ha gustado muchísimo. Me ha parecido tremendamente realista y duro de leer, pero a la vez lo he sentido como una parte fundamental de la historia que se han dejado por contar. Estoy segura de que en un tiempo releeré los dos cuentos que no me han gustado para darles otra visión e intentar disfrutarlos tanto como los demás. Y pienso buscar todo lo que esta autora ha escrito (que tengo entendido que no es mucho) y leerlo.

[esmé]

My bad for never finishing all these stories until now. Love love love - Baynton is my Australian gothic queen

[Mon]

The antithesis to Henry Lawson's misogynistic short stories of life in the Australian bush. Baynton's realistic portrayal of women and the way they were treated is horrifying and will haunt you forever.

[Erika]

Me sorprendió la crudeza de las historias, y también el énfasis en los perros como única compañía fiel.

[Highlyeccentric]

Huh. These were fascinating: mostly character studies of fragile people living in poverty and isolation. Most were women, but one study concerned an elderly man awaiting the return of the young couple who lived with or near him - his ruminations on the younger man's betrayal of him by taking a wife interwoven with and marked unreliable by his acute fear of the stranger he expected to soon assault him. I was least interested by a study of a rural preacher, and by one of a city woman travelling to become housekeeper on a remote station - the latter was soaked in classism and racism.

I wonder about the fear-of-swaggies-and-tramps thing. When it appears in, say, the Billabong books, I remember registering it as classism even before I had the words for it (at the same time aware that I would do no different), but here the gender/age issues come out. I do really wonder what the actual rates of, eg, theft and assault of women by swaggies in the remote bush were, but of course no one kept count.

Baynton's acute awareness of the factors that bind women to abusive men, though, that was spot on. In one particularly awful study, a couple work together as day labourers, but after the woman is injured, their former employers and colleagues will have nothing to do with either of them, and she ends up living, bedridden, in a cabin behind that in which her partner lives with his new, more traditional, common-law wife.

I wouldn't recommend these stories as *fun* but they are artful, and if you like Lawson's often dismal depiction of bush life then these should definitely be included alongside his.

[The Bookshop Umina]

The stories in this collection are quite uneven. All deal with the hardships of living in the Australian bush during the 1800's but some stories are wonderful and others difficult to read.



The collection is worth picking up just for the first and last stories. They are atmospheric, beautifully evoked stories that have you gripped from the very beginning.



Perhaps you should skip a few of the ones in the middle though - by trying to capture the dialogue and sound of the characters, much of the dialogue is lost - as it is so hard to work out what is being said. Stick to the stories that are told in narrative form instead!

[Jacqui]

Memorable Quotes

"...her heart gave a bound of savage rapture in thus giving the sweat of her body for the sin of her soul."

"The daughter parted the curtains, and the light fell on the face of the sleeper who would dream no dreams that night."

“Ned, moreover, had tried to force his example on the male community by impressing upon them his philosophy, that it was the proper thing to hit a woman every time you met her, since she must either be coming from mischief or going to it.”

[Amanda]

I'm struggling to decide what I think. On the one hand, it's a collection of stories that show the impact the bush can have on different types of people; on the other, it's a testament to the lucky few who really learn what the bush is and means. Overall, it's a fairly black collection of tales in which women and nature seem to do battle and men just get in the way.

[Heather Browning]

Quite bleak and creepy stories, she manages to build up suspense without dramatics. The overlying theme of Australia's bleak bushland and the lack of hope in the people is strong. Some humour in the presentation of some typical 'bush characters'

[felixexplody]

Essential reading for lovers of Australian literature. The Chosen Vessel is one of the greatest bush stories ever told. Makes Henry Lawson look pedestrian.

[Lauren]

Some of the stories were a little hard to get into, especially when characters started talking all 'straya like. That said, others were quite good, so it balanced out. A grim, creepy collection.

[Belinda]

The final story was by far the best, but overall I'm incredibly disappointed in this collection.

[Serena]

I enjoyed Chosen Vessel and A dreamer the most out of the short stories. Baynton writes in a very blunt and eyeopening way.
Very interesting perspective of males and females in Australia.

[Blue Hole]

gruff unsympathetic stories about seedy drunkards and hard-faced desert louts (Australians)

[Davidlodge82]

Es un compendio de relatos que muestra la rudeza y crueldad de un entorno como es Australia que lleva a los personajes a ambientes extremos generando incomodidad en ciertos momentos al leerlos