Text Classics Great books by great storytellers WITH REMARKABLE NEW INTRODUCTIONS

‘The Jerilderie Letter is angry, mad, scary. One of the greatest rants ever put to the page. Rants don’t always achieve poetry but this does. His description of his tormentors—"big, ugly, fat-necked, wombat-headed, big-bellied, magpie-legged, narrow-hipped, splay-footed sons of Irish bailiffs or English landlords … better known as officers of Justice or Victorian Police"—stands proudly in the great tradition of Irish list poems. Read this letter out loud. Then go out and DO something!’

What makes a classic? ‘Something that makes you nervous or excited (same thing?) to pick up, well after the initial print run.’

‘Tamarisk Row by Gerald Murnane. Because the poise in the memory, the backyards and the marbles in the dirt, the sex and the squares in calendars, the men and the land and the tracks in it, are passed on to a reader exhilarated in the realisation that this great Australian novel is in fact Tamarisk Row, coming home when the race is all over.’

‘Using my Jane Austen Index: the book I read every year for pleasure and a sense of place and time—The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner. Deceptively effortless prose, clear-eyed insights, absolutely believable characters: everything about it is special.’

What makes a classic? ‘It has to be CLASsy and fully SIC.’

A classic is ‘a book that defines who we are, yet we had never considered ourselves in that way before’.

‘Can I nominate Cultural Amnesia by Clive James as my favourite Australian book—it’s one of the best written, perspicacious, informative and above all scintillating reads and re-reads?’

‘I remember reading Jessica Anderson’s Tirra Lirra by the River as a young bookseller in 1979. It has remained with me, a short masterpiece about one woman’s life so beautifully re-imagined that it saddens and inspires simultaneously.’

A classic is ‘a story about the human condition, which reaches through the generations’.

‘I think one of the great under-appreciated Australian writers is Lily Brett. Unintended Consequences and The Auschwitz Poems were two collections of poetry that were so accessible and so powerful and they’ve always been with me.’

What makes a classic? ‘Endurance, not sales. The sometimes gentle, sometimes raw, insistence of a voice like no other.’

‘The Magic Pudding. Apparently a friend of Norman Lindsay maintained that children love to read about fairies. Lindsay disagreed—he said they loved to read about food. Regardless, this is such a clever book that it’s at least as entertaining for adults. A marvellous tale, filled with Lindsay’s delightful illustrations and dry humour. Delicious.’

‘Any book which outlives the fashions and trends it was written in & still remains relevant, is a classic.’

‘I loved The Fortunes of Richard Mahony because it is a breath-taking view of Ballarat last century with understandable problems in the local politics, careers being built and the personal relationships of characters. I still have the descriptions in my mind of carts bogging in the ruts of Little Collins St, which was a rowdy tent city of Chinese restaurants and apothecaries. Such fine description and such sensitively drawn characters.’

What makes a classic? ‘Somewhere, a dingo barked.’

‘The depiction of Australian life in Kylie Tennant’s Ride on Stranger is striking in its intensity and starkness. The main character, Shannon Hicks, is fiercely independent, strong and willing to fall headlong into life regardless of society’s expectations. Through her eyes, we see how we are shaped by our choices and influenced by the world we inhabit yet can remain true to ourselves. On first reading this years ago, I was struck by the original and, for the time, brave depiction Kylie Tennant presents of a woman in her society.’

‘Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park. Wonderful evocation of small country town intolerance and depression era hardship. Re-read it several times but sadly someone “borrowed” my much loved copy.’

‘A book an author is happy with at its time of publication, and its readers are happy with years later, is a classic.’

‘Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet. The down to earth, quirky characters, the evocative sense of place and the beautiful narrative by Fish! That scene where he and his brother are out in the boat looking at the stars brings me to tears just thinking about it. My 16-year-old daughter just read it for the first time and adored it. I must have done something right!’

What makes a classic? ‘A book you might perhaps fib about having read even though you haven’t…’

A classic is ‘a book you study at school and (claim to) loathe; then go back and reread as an adult and love’.

‘My favourite Australian classic is Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay—for its gentle, haunting style and its real sense of the Australian landscape.’

‘Three Cheers for the Paraclete by Thomas Kenneally—A sympathetic, but devastating, “Brides of Christ” for guys, if you will. But all the more gripping as having been written at the time, and not with hindsight. Just so apposite right now in view of all the present day abuse scandals. Read it when first published and have never forgotten it.’

A classic is ‘something that remains relevant and enjoyable despite the passage of time’.

‘Shane Maloney’s Stiff is my go-to book whenever I need a cheer up or a new perspective. His prose, his slanted and sometimes achingly accurate view on the world lifts my spirits every time. The fact that I can discover something new, something funny after all these reads speaks well for Shane Maloney’s work…or my forgetfulness. One of the two.’

A classic is ‘a work that’s artistically or psychologically revealing for many years to come’.

‘Patrick White’s Voss: absolutely haunting.
Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet: achingly familiar, oddly distant and unique.
Elizabeth Jolly’s The Well: tight, disturbing, riveting.
Carmel Bird’s The Bluebird Cafe: inventive, lyrical, fun.

‘I know that’s more than one, but they’re my favourites; how could I possibly choose from amongst them?’

A classic is ‘a book with universal appeal and a timeless theme that expresses life, truth or beauty’.

‘Manhattan Dreaming by Anita Heiss and Shadowboxing by Tony Birch. Both books present an Australia I recognize and both books are concerned with contemporary political matters that are important to me. After I put down Manhattan Dreaming it was like I had left behind a friend whose company I would quickly miss. It was also interesting to read about an Indigenous Australian character’s experience of America. Shadowboxing made me reflect on class, race and domestic lives in Australia…’