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Search - Under Capricorn (World Cultural Heritage Library)

Under Capricorn - World Cultural Heritage Library
Author: Helen Simpson

In 1831 Australia, Charles Adare arrives with his uncle, the new governor. Charles hopes to make his fortune in Sydney. He is befriended by Samson Flusky, a prosperous ex-convict. Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta, was a friend of Charles's sister in Ireland. Sam hopes that Charles will cheer up his wife, who is an alcoholic. Meanwhile the housekeeper,... more » Milly, secretly loves Sam, and encourages Henrietta's drinking. Sam has been sent to an Australian prison after he confessed to a killing actually committed by Henrietta, who followed Sam and waited for his release... *** an selection from: BOOK I.

I have read that Capricornus, the heavenly Goat, being ascendant at nativitie, denieth honour to persons of quality, and esteeme to the Vulgar. Can a Starre do so by onlie shineing on a Woman in her pangs? Shall Capricornus bind a poore man the world ouer, no part, no Land undiscouered, where hee may shake free? I will not belieue it: nor that Honour (not forfeit) can be for euer hidd by decree of this distemperate Starre. --A Limbo For Ladies.

(i)

The year, eighteen hundred and thirty-one. The place, Sydney; a city whose streets were first laid by men in chains for the easier progress of the soldiers who guarded I them. This city, growing slowly about a population of convicts and soldiers, had at that date no very penitential air. The harbour water, lively with sun; the many windmills, leisurely bestirring themselves; the ships at anchor, hung with marine laundry, ensigns trailing; the smoke of domestic chimneys: all these things contrived to lend Sydney an air of expectancy rather than despair. Maps show where the habitations were gathered; they were not many, though diarists and letter-writers of the period agree that they were tasteful, and showed up cleanly against the dark universal background of trees. "Not," says one lady, "that I should like it in a picture so well as our softer and more rounded perspective, but in a new place, where one likes to see everything plainly, it is very pleasant." So much for maps and for prose. Poetry of the place and period lacks, or is not much to the purpose. Still, the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge did, in the year 1823, announce Australia as the subject with which his would-be medallists must concern themselves; and since one of the unsuccessful competitors was William Charles Wentworth, born in the new continent, his descriptions must be allowed to possess some authority. After an account of Cook's discovery, with a digression upon the fate of La Perouse, Mr. Wentworth proceeds: Lo! thickly planted o'er the glassy bay, Where Sydney loves her beauties to survey, And ev'ry morn, delighted, sees the gleam Of some fresh pennant dancing in her stream, A masty forest, stranger vessels moor Charg'd with the fruits of every foreign shore. While landward--the thronged quay, the creaking crane, The noisy workmen, and the loaded wain, The lengthen'd street, wide square, and column'd front Of stately mansions, and the gushing font, The solemn church, the busy market throng, And idle loungers saunt'ring slow among-- Shew that the mournful genius of the plain Driv'n from his primal solitary reign, Has backward fled, and fixed his drowsy throne In untrod wilds, to muse and brood alone. His account almost fills in the picture, which yet needs to complete it a sense that this new country was no mere, copy of the old, but had already taken on a character of its own, defiant, tough, indolent; as though the idle loungers of Mr. Wentworth's poem were to be viewed with their hats cocked, pulling in their belts upon hunger with a laugh, and having a loaded pistol somewhere ready about them which they were prepared upon slight occasion to use. There was freedom, derived as usual from slavery. There was money, derived about equally from labour, land, and luck...

ISBN-13: 9781438799438
ISBN-10: 1438799438
Publication Date: 9/9/2009
Pages: 150
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Intl Business Pubns USA
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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