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The Fortunes of Richard Mahony #1
Australia Felix
Australia Felix was originally published as The Fortunes of Richard Mahony: Australia Felix, with the subtitle appearing only on the title page.
"Australia Felix" is a description used by explorer Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 for the lush plains he discovered between the Murray River and the south coast of Victoria, including the area that later became the site of Ballarat.
[edit] Part One
Nine chapters and a prologue introducing us to Dr. Richard Townshend-Mahony, F.R.C.S., M.D., Edinburgh, for two years the proprietor of Diggers' Emporium in Ballarat township, near Melbourne, Australia, which he runs with his assistants Long Jim and Ebenezer Hempel. He came to the goldfields in 1852 based on advertising that made gold seem easy to acquire. He was accompanied by his best friend, Purdy Smith, an Englishman with whom he has little in common, but is more refined than typical diggers like old lawyer Ocock and his son, Tom, and later, his older son, Henry. The fact that Mahony refuses to partake of alcohol on even a social level often causes others to dislike him. A large portion of the first part deals with Mahony's courtship of fifteen-year-old Polly Turnham, who works as a servant at the Beamish Hotel, sleeping with the two plump Beamish sisters Tilly and Jinny, who are virtually indistinguishable save for their eye color, who insist on mispronouncing Richard's surname "Ma-hon-y", though the accent is supposed to be on the first syllable. After working with her brother, Ned, and facing a battery of questions from her eldest brother John, the two are able to get married. John and his beautiful wife Emma are unable to attend when the latter falls ill. Also arriving for the wedding is Polly's older sister, Sarah.
[edit] Part Two
Eight chapters. Spoiled flour in the store Mahony was inattentive in keeping has got him sued and forced to close the store. Polly is displeased with the dirt floor shack Richard calls home. John has gone temporarily mad when his wife's illness leads to her death. He was so devoted to her that he needs the children removed from his home while he recovers from his grief. Polly miscarries, and is more than happy to take in the children, Emma (Trotty, later Emmy), Johnny, and Jerry, along with Sarah. Sarah takes on a new name, Sara "(spoken Sahra)". Mahony resumes his practice and they move to a new house.
[edit] Part Three
Eleven chapters. Mahony begins a longstanding habit of shutting himself away reading religion and philosophy, starring with Lamarck and Maillet, coming from a baseline of Irish Protestantism, and wanting to release God from the "dead-letterism from which the centuries had accumulated about Him"[1] to reveal a God of mercy. Henry Ocock courts Agnes Glenidinning, whose father is in an asylum for trying to kill her. Sara is so sick of her name being mispronounced that she changes it to Zara for a more French feel. John recovers and takes toward politics with great success, and takes the children back in.
[edit] Part Four
Twelve chapters. Ned takes to wife another Polly, so his sister begins using her real name, Mary, feeling she has outgrown the name Polly. Mahony has become rather successful as a physician, but Henry Ocock has been even more successful, which bothers Richard, who believes his relative refinement should be reflected in his earnings. Mahony does indeed become more and more successful, and Mary becomes deeply involved in the preparations for a gala to raise money for a statue of Burke and Wills. John sends his children to boarding school. The more successful Mahony gets, the more he longs to return to England. Tempted by the gold that was falsely promised, he had been wanting to extricate himself forever from Australia's soil, and he sells the house to pay for the journey, desiring to set up a country practice in a country where the apples grow red on all sides.
"Australia Felix" is a description used by explorer Major Thomas Mitchell in 1836 for the lush plains he discovered between the Murray River and the south coast of Victoria, including the area that later became the site of Ballarat.
[edit] Part One
Nine chapters and a prologue introducing us to Dr. Richard Townshend-Mahony, F.R.C.S., M.D., Edinburgh, for two years the proprietor of Diggers' Emporium in Ballarat township, near Melbourne, Australia, which he runs with his assistants Long Jim and Ebenezer Hempel. He came to the goldfields in 1852 based on advertising that made gold seem easy to acquire. He was accompanied by his best friend, Purdy Smith, an Englishman with whom he has little in common, but is more refined than typical diggers like old lawyer Ocock and his son, Tom, and later, his older son, Henry. The fact that Mahony refuses to partake of alcohol on even a social level often causes others to dislike him. A large portion of the first part deals with Mahony's courtship of fifteen-year-old Polly Turnham, who works as a servant at the Beamish Hotel, sleeping with the two plump Beamish sisters Tilly and Jinny, who are virtually indistinguishable save for their eye color, who insist on mispronouncing Richard's surname "Ma-hon-y", though the accent is supposed to be on the first syllable. After working with her brother, Ned, and facing a battery of questions from her eldest brother John, the two are able to get married. John and his beautiful wife Emma are unable to attend when the latter falls ill. Also arriving for the wedding is Polly's older sister, Sarah.
[edit] Part Two
Eight chapters. Spoiled flour in the store Mahony was inattentive in keeping has got him sued and forced to close the store. Polly is displeased with the dirt floor shack Richard calls home. John has gone temporarily mad when his wife's illness leads to her death. He was so devoted to her that he needs the children removed from his home while he recovers from his grief. Polly miscarries, and is more than happy to take in the children, Emma (Trotty, later Emmy), Johnny, and Jerry, along with Sarah. Sarah takes on a new name, Sara "(spoken Sahra)". Mahony resumes his practice and they move to a new house.
[edit] Part Three
Eleven chapters. Mahony begins a longstanding habit of shutting himself away reading religion and philosophy, starring with Lamarck and Maillet, coming from a baseline of Irish Protestantism, and wanting to release God from the "dead-letterism from which the centuries had accumulated about Him"[1] to reveal a God of mercy. Henry Ocock courts Agnes Glenidinning, whose father is in an asylum for trying to kill her. Sara is so sick of her name being mispronounced that she changes it to Zara for a more French feel. John recovers and takes toward politics with great success, and takes the children back in.
[edit] Part Four
Twelve chapters. Ned takes to wife another Polly, so his sister begins using her real name, Mary, feeling she has outgrown the name Polly. Mahony has become rather successful as a physician, but Henry Ocock has been even more successful, which bothers Richard, who believes his relative refinement should be reflected in his earnings. Mahony does indeed become more and more successful, and Mary becomes deeply involved in the preparations for a gala to raise money for a statue of Burke and Wills. John sends his children to boarding school. The more successful Mahony gets, the more he longs to return to England. Tempted by the gold that was falsely promised, he had been wanting to extricate himself forever from Australia's soil, and he sells the house to pay for the journey, desiring to set up a country practice in a country where the apples grow red on all sides.
292 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1917
About the author
Henry Handel Richardson
78 books41 followersEthel Florence Lindesay Richardson Robertson for mixed motives used and adopted Henry Handel Richardson, a pen-name that probably militated against recognition especially when feminist literary history began. Maurice Guest was highly praised in Germany when it first appeared in translation in 1912, but received a bad press in England, though it influenced other novelists. The publishers bowdlerized the language for the second imprint. The trilogy suffered from the long intervals between its three volumes: Australia Felix (1917); The Way Home (1925) and Ultima Thule (1929). The last brought overnight fame and the three volumes were published as one in 1930. Her fame in England was short-lived; as late as 1977, when Virago Press republished The Getting of Wisdom, some London critics referred to the author as 'Mr Richardson'. Her short stories, The End of a Childhood (1934), and the novel, The Young Cosima (1939), had lukewarm receptions.
Henry Handel Richardson's place in Australian literature is important and secure. The Fortunes is an archetypal novel of the country, written about the great upsurge of nineteenth-century Western capitalism fuelled by the gold discoveries. With relentless objectivity it surveys all the main issues which were to define the direction of white Australian society from the 1850s onwards, within the domestic framework of a marriage. Powerfully symbolic in a realistic mode it is, as an English critic said in 1973, 'one of the great inexorable books of the world'.
Henry Handel Richardson's place in Australian literature is important and secure. The Fortunes is an archetypal novel of the country, written about the great upsurge of nineteenth-century Western capitalism fuelled by the gold discoveries. With relentless objectivity it surveys all the main issues which were to define the direction of white Australian society from the 1850s onwards, within the domestic framework of a marriage. Powerfully symbolic in a realistic mode it is, as an English critic said in 1973, 'one of the great inexorable books of the world'.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 14, 2023
Oh, I so wish I could get the next two of the trilogy!!!!! If I could, I would read them immediately. Hopefully this makes clear to you my appreciation of this book.
Consider the book's title. The Latin for "happy Australia" or "fortunate Australia" is Australia Felix. It was the early name given by Thomas Mitchell to lush pasture lands in western Victoria. It is here the story is set. In 1851 gold was discovered!
To better understand the historical events described, I went to the net:
“Gold discovery at Ballarat in 1851 sparked Victoria's famous gold rush. An estimated 6000 diggers (miners) arrived each week seeking their fortune. Ballarat was considered the world's richest alluvial goldfield during its peak between 1852 and 1853.”
"The rebellion of miners at Eureka Stockade is a key event in the development of Australia's representational structures and attitudes towards democracy and egalitarianism. The Southern Cross became the symbol of rebellion after the Eureka Stockade."
This is a book f historical fiction. It is based also on the life of the author's father.
Richard Mahony, a doctor trained in Edinburgh, comes to Ballarat during the years of the gold rush. He runs a shop and meets the woman he will marry. Their lives are closely interwoven with the lives of his wife’s siblings and the family where she worked as a teenager. Gradually, slowly but surely, each of the characters come alive. Each has an important role to play. Suddenly you realize how very well you have come to know the personality traits of a wide cast of characters. You feel as though you are there with them, and the story becomes personal. Their world has become your world! I got exactly the same feeling when I read the author’s book The Getting of Wisdom! It takes a while to know the characters, but once you know them you really know them and you know each one very well . This is reason number one which explains why the book is so very good.
Reason number two: Richard returns to his medical practice. Through him we experience the ups and downs of the life of a doctor and the never ending work it entails. Is he happy? Is he satisfied? What exactly is lacking? And what must be done to improve the situation? And what does his wife think of the changes he feels impelled to make? This is the story as it is served up here.
There are pinches of humor in the lines. One example must suffice. Richard tires of tried hobbies. When they have died, the collected paraphernalia is shoved into a closet. Jokingly, he refers to this closet as “the cemetery for dead fads”.
As a book of historical fiction, this book is good! I very much like the characterizations. Just remember to give the book time—the characters will grow upon you. Real people cannot be understood at the snap of a finger.
This, the first of the trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, does stand well on its own, but having read it, you won’t want to stop here. I have become attached to the characters and don’t want to leave them. It’s very annoying that I cannot get my hands on the next two of the series!
I found this at Librivox read by Tabithat. The recordings at this site are free. Go to Librivox, write the title and you’ll find it. Download it, and then listen on your phone. The narrators at the site give of their free time. Tabithat’s narration is better than most. I rarely give these narrations four stars, but I did here. She reads. She doesn’t dramatize. She speaks clearly. Her reading of an auction scene is better than good. The words are moving, and she lets the words speak for themselves.
*******************
*'The Getting of Wisdom 4 stars
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
*Australia Felix 4 stars
*The Way Home TBR
*Ultima Thule TBR
Consider the book's title. The Latin for "happy Australia" or "fortunate Australia" is Australia Felix. It was the early name given by Thomas Mitchell to lush pasture lands in western Victoria. It is here the story is set. In 1851 gold was discovered!
To better understand the historical events described, I went to the net:
“Gold discovery at Ballarat in 1851 sparked Victoria's famous gold rush. An estimated 6000 diggers (miners) arrived each week seeking their fortune. Ballarat was considered the world's richest alluvial goldfield during its peak between 1852 and 1853.”
"The rebellion of miners at Eureka Stockade is a key event in the development of Australia's representational structures and attitudes towards democracy and egalitarianism. The Southern Cross became the symbol of rebellion after the Eureka Stockade."
This is a book f historical fiction. It is based also on the life of the author's father.
Richard Mahony, a doctor trained in Edinburgh, comes to Ballarat during the years of the gold rush. He runs a shop and meets the woman he will marry. Their lives are closely interwoven with the lives of his wife’s siblings and the family where she worked as a teenager. Gradually, slowly but surely, each of the characters come alive. Each has an important role to play. Suddenly you realize how very well you have come to know the personality traits of a wide cast of characters. You feel as though you are there with them, and the story becomes personal. Their world has become your world! I got exactly the same feeling when I read the author’s book The Getting of Wisdom! It takes a while to know the characters, but once you know them you really know them and you know each one very well . This is reason number one which explains why the book is so very good.
Reason number two: Richard returns to his medical practice. Through him we experience the ups and downs of the life of a doctor and the never ending work it entails. Is he happy? Is he satisfied? What exactly is lacking? And what must be done to improve the situation? And what does his wife think of the changes he feels impelled to make? This is the story as it is served up here.
There are pinches of humor in the lines. One example must suffice. Richard tires of tried hobbies. When they have died, the collected paraphernalia is shoved into a closet. Jokingly, he refers to this closet as “the cemetery for dead fads”.
As a book of historical fiction, this book is good! I very much like the characterizations. Just remember to give the book time—the characters will grow upon you. Real people cannot be understood at the snap of a finger.
This, the first of the trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, does stand well on its own, but having read it, you won’t want to stop here. I have become attached to the characters and don’t want to leave them. It’s very annoying that I cannot get my hands on the next two of the series!
I found this at Librivox read by Tabithat. The recordings at this site are free. Go to Librivox, write the title and you’ll find it. Download it, and then listen on your phone. The narrators at the site give of their free time. Tabithat’s narration is better than most. I rarely give these narrations four stars, but I did here. She reads. She doesn’t dramatize. She speaks clearly. Her reading of an auction scene is better than good. The words are moving, and she lets the words speak for themselves.
*******************
*'The Getting of Wisdom 4 stars
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
*Australia Felix 4 stars
*The Way Home TBR
*Ultima Thule TBR
May 10, 2023
This really is the Great Australian Novel. It's actually a trilogy which begins in the period of the great gold rush in Ballarat in 1851. While painting some of the most memorable and arresting images of Australian life you will ever read, it traces a search for identity and the struggle of one woman to support her family at a time when a 'lady' did not work. Highly recommended.
Update 10/5/23
And now you can, if you are so minded, read my journal notes about this novel in what I call Reviews from the Archive on my blog. See anzlitlovers.com/2023/05/10/australia...
Update 10/5/23
And now you can, if you are so minded, read my journal notes about this novel in what I call Reviews from the Archive on my blog. See anzlitlovers.com/2023/05/10/australia...
July 18, 2016
Although dated and written at a time where publishing by a woman would almost impossible, it becomes clear that Richardson not merely received a very good education in Melbourne (LC)at a time when the city was becoming a civic and cultural centre but achieved an equally impressive acclaim in musical composition. The book focuses on the central complicated and opaque character of Richard who marries a teenager (Polly then Mary - all very confusing in her name) whilst seeking his fortune of the gold fields of the 1870s. Fascinating detail about the tough life people led , the eureka stockade stand off and the attitude of ordinary people to British law made for a good historical insight. Equally well drawn was the character of Richard, a doctor trained in Edinburgh who is lured by quick success but doesn't really have the guts for it His young wife is a little too good to be true - a sort of polly anna figure to mix literature who always shows a pragmatic practical side. What was well done were the other femaie characters who see marriage as a necessary evil to allow them respectability. The story picks up momentum towards the final soul searching when Richard and wife (now a decade older and still childless) leave Melbourne for the old country as his heart is restless. I intend to read the next volume
September 6, 2018
The first of the Richard Mahoney trilogy, this starts at the Ballarat goldfields and the Eureka Stockade. Mahoney is failing as a storekeeper, is a snob, dreams of England, has one mate who is decidedly shaky and is a dreamer. He returns to his original calling as a doctor, marries a much younger lady Molly and dabbles in investments.
There is a lot about the heat, how everyone is out to make money, Mahoney's grumpiness and Molly's sensibility. By the end of the book they are off back to England where life promises to be easier.
There is a lot about the heat, how everyone is out to make money, Mahoney's grumpiness and Molly's sensibility. By the end of the book they are off back to England where life promises to be easier.
April 9, 2026
Slow but good, feels like a pre-cursor to 'Stoner' and the understated, muted toned novels of the latter half of the 20th century.
Dragged in parts, exceptional in the first part, page eight was magnificent.
Excellent descriptions of colonial Australia.
Dragged in parts, exceptional in the first part, page eight was magnificent.
Excellent descriptions of colonial Australia.
November 20, 2012
Henry Handel Richardson is a pseudonym used by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson (1870-1946). I am surprised that she and her works are not better known and more widely read than they are. Australia Felix (1917) is the first book of a trilogy about the life and trials of Dr. Richard Townshend-Mahony and his wife Polly. Richard left England, as thousands did during the 1850’s, and made the long voyage to Australia and the goldfields of Victoria. Luck didn't shine on his endeavors and he gave up the goldfields and tried his hand at storekeeper. He married a fifteen-year-old local girl Polly and begins to dream of returning to England. Polly, though young in years, has a knack for looking at problems practically and convinces Richard to open a medical practice in Ballarat, a growing town a short distance from Melbourne. The story and ability of the author are comparable to works by Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters and in my opinion superior. Australia Felix is well worth reading.
July 18, 2024
Very much enjoyed this book. I can't say it has a plot though - more like just following the day to day of a fellow as he travels a section of his life journey. Character development is really good, I did feel that I got to know the characters quite well. It was written in 1917, set in Ballarat at the time of the Gold Rush and Eureka stockade, written by a woman posing as a man (I guess to get published) and this shows in the white colonial language used and the storyline of England as the Mother Country. In some ways it is 'birth of a nation' stuff but from an extremely white Anglo Saxon viewpoint, reflective of both the time it was written and the time in which it is set. I was going to write that there is 'barely' any mention of indigenous characters but now that I've finished the book I'm finding it hard to recall ANY mention of First Nations people, so I am changing 'barely' to 'none'. If you can keep it in the context of when it was written and 'forgive' therefore the very narrow POV, it's actually a lovely story about people finding their way in a new country with all the setbacks and achievements involved. Main character shat me on and off - he finally finds some kind of contentment at the end (or at least he thinks he does at this stage of his life), for which he looks to the skies and thanks God, when in reality it is absolutely his loyal, smart and savvy wife who has come to understand him completely and has done her 'duty" in supporting him no matter what. He'd have been in a very different place without her. Looking forward at some point to reading books 2 and 3 of this trilogy.
April 1, 2023
A book I originally read when I was studying the Victorian Gold Rush in history at school. But that part - and the Eureka Stockade - was only the first part of this novel. It was interesting to watch Richard unravel as he marries Polly/Mary, then moves to make his fortune, but makes mistakes. He's restless and never fulfilled, even when earning good money as a doctor. He would have been a very difficult man to live with, as Mary privately learns. I loved reading this book, and loved the slice of Australian history it portrays so casually but vividly; Henry Handel Richardson was truly a gifted author.
August 19, 2020
A nice portrayal of life in eighteenth century Ballarat. It's a bit wordy, but then it was written nearly a century ago. I found the characters likeable, even the spiky Mahoney, although it was hard at times to keep up with the many supporting characters, mostly relatives, who move in and out of the characters' lives at breakneck pace. There are two more (also long) books in the trilogy, and I'm undecided on whether I have the patience for all of them. But I'm glad I read this one and might try the next one out.
May 5, 2021
I finally got to the first volume of Richardson's Australian classic that is named after me (The Fortunes of Richard Mahony). It shouldn't have taken me so long. Beginning during the Victorian gold rush, the novel delves deeply into its main characters, who are portrayed with good nuance. It can feel a bit moralistic at times but is a compelling window into 19th Century Australia.
August 18, 2019
Extra interesting now that I live in the area and all the place names have meaning. For example, the
"great swamp", "Yuille's Swamp" and "Lake Wendouree" are all the same place, but the changing name through the book shows the way the town was growing and developing as the story progressed.
"great swamp", "Yuille's Swamp" and "Lake Wendouree" are all the same place, but the changing name through the book shows the way the town was growing and developing as the story progressed.
August 3, 2022
Not quite the classic " Great Australian Novel" I deemed it was when I read it 50 years ago. One thing of note was how similar I am to the difficult Mahoney and how similar my wife is to Mary.
If only a twenty year old could have seen into the future.
If only a twenty year old could have seen into the future.
February 14, 2020
Very well written and enjoyable Australian classic.
February 22, 2023
An easy to read and captivating story of the settlement of Australia Frontier
February 1, 2022
This novel held little interest for me. I was interested to read a novel set in 19th century Australia so I decided to give this one, published in 1917, a look. But the truth is, I found little appetite for the story. I mean, here’s a novel that begins with the Eureka Stockade rebellion and then devotes its narrative to the conduct of a pleasant marriage and its immediate society. Kind of like mentioning a racehorse and expounding on the saddle, no? I will not be reading the remaining books of the trilogy. Your mileage may vary, of course. This was just a bad fit of novel and reader.
February 10, 2013
Interesting and well-written fictional account set in Ballarat and Melbourne starting with the gold-rush, just pre Eureka Stockade ... seems like one of Australia's earliest significant historical literature efforts.
May 9, 2013
A great Australian period piece. The first in the trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony
Want to Read
August 17, 2014Free download available at eBooks@Adelaide.
May 1, 2017
This my second reading of this novel after a very long break of more than 40 years. Based on my memory of that initial reading I rated it 5 stars when I joined Goodreads. I enjoyed this recent re-reading but this time round will give it 3 stars.
April 1, 2017
Excellent historical novel that starts in the Large Goldrush period of the 1850s in Victoria. The story focuses on the progress of an Irish doctor who tried his hand at gold mining, while giving a vivid picture of a gold mining community and its development. Similar to the other Australia-themed books I've been reading, the picture is one of sudden reversals in fortune and precarious life.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews