The Penguin Century of Australian Stories edited by Carmel Bird 2000

Dustjacket synopsis:
"This landmark collection brings together the best Australian short stories written in the twentieth century.

"From early bush life to contemporary urban existence, The Penguin Century of Australian Stories celebrates our finest writers in all their modes: the lively comic fiction of Henry Lawson and Steele Rudd, the distinctive imaginations of Christina Stead and Patrick White, the experimental style of Peter Carey, and the highly lyrical prose of Brenda Walker and James Bradley.

"Selected by Carmel Bird, these stories mirror the concerns of Australia's past and present. The Penguin Century of Australian Short Stories will enlighten and entertain for years to come."

Contents:
Preface
Introduction by Kerryn Goldsworthy
Biographical Timeline
Publication Timeline
"Squeaker's Mate" by Barbara Baynton
"The Loaded Dog" by Henry Lawson
"Arriving in Melbourne" by Ada Cambridge
"Dave Brings Home a Wife" by Steele Rudd (Arthur Hoey Davis)
"The Jeweller's Shop" by Tom Collins (Joseph Furphy)
"The Stump" by Vance Palmer
"The Grey Horse" by Katharine Susannah Prichard
"Fear" by Henrietta Drake-Brockman
"'And Women Must Weep'" by Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel H. Lindesay Richardson)
"Guest of the Redshields" by Christina Stead
"Dust" by Gavin Casey
"The Woman at the Mill" by Frank Dalby Davison
"Kaijek the Songman" by Xavier Herbert
"'Tell Us about the Turkey, Jo...'" by Alan Marshall
"The Persimmon Tree" by Marjorie Barnard
"The Nightshift" by John Morrison
"The Enthusiastic Prisoner" by E. O. Schlunke
"The Man Who Bowled Victor Trumper" by Dal Stivens
"Mother" by Judah Waten
"Miss Aminta Wirraway and the Sin of Lust" by Ethel Anderson
"Serpents" by Eleanor Dark
"The Picnic" by Shirley Hazzard
"Francis Silver" by Hal Porter
"The Voice" by Peter Cowan
"Being Kind to Titina" by Patrick White
"Lady Weare and the Bodhisattva" by Kylie Tennant
"The Man of Slow Feeling" by Michael Wilding
"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" by Murray Bail
"The Last Days of a Famous Mime" by Peter Carey
"The Cost of Things" by Elizabeth Harrower
"The Commune Does Not Want You" by Frank Moorhouse
"Sandcastles" by Archie Weller
"A Snake Down Under" by Glenda Adams
"Petals from Blown Roses" by Thea Astley
"Country Girl Again" by Jean Bedford
"Children Aren't Supposed to Be Here at All" by John Bryson
"Under the House" by Jessica Anderson
"My Father and the Jews" by Frank Hardy
"A Knight of Teeth" by Peter Mathers
"The Glass Boy" by Gwen Harwood
"The Lang Women" by Olga Masters
"Thylacine" by Bruce Pascoe
"Headlocks" by Barry Hill
"Wedding Presents for Breakfast" by Gerard Windsor
"My Father's Axe" by Tim Winton
"Snakes" by Ida West
"John Gilbert's Dog" by David Brooks
"A Man in the Laundrette" by Beverley Farmer
"The Life of Art" by Helen Garner
"Dropping Dance" by Kate Grenville
"A Medium" by David Malouf
"Only a Little of So Much" by Fay Zwicky
"Amateur Hour" by Garry Disher
"The List of All Answers" by Peter Goldsworthy
"The Ego in Arcadia" by Marion Halligan
"After Long Absence" by Janette Turner Hospital
"New Year" by Joan London
"Mr Berrington" by Elizabeth Jolley
"Extra Virgin" by Jan Hutchinson
"Seeing" by Susan Johnson
"The White Feather" by John Kinsella
"The Brown Paper Coffin" by James McQueen
"The House to Themselves" by Ruth Park
"Tie-breaker" by Peter Corris
"The Shipwreck Party" by Liam Davison
"Radiant Heat" by Robert Drewe
"The Funerals" by Brian Matthews
"Queen of Love" by Rosie Scott
"The Golden Moment" by Carmel Bird
"The Cruelty of Mermaids" by Janine Burke
"Like an Egyptian" by Brenda Walker
"Real Good Slide Night" by Barry Dickens
"Sisters" by Barbara Hanrahan
"This and the Giver" by Gillian Mears
"Fosterball" by Barry Oakley
"Martin Falvey" by Thomas Shapcott
"The Enemies of Time" by Amy Witting
"'Life Probably Saved by Imbecile Dwarf'" by Gail Jones
"Our Swimmer" by Tim Richards
"The Crossing" by Deborah Robertson
"The Innocents" by Penelope Rowe
"Johnny Cake Days" by John Clark
"The Powerful Owl" by Candida Baker
"Sonatina" by Brian Castro
"The Water Poets" by Delia Falconer
"14th October 1843" by Kerryn Goldsworthy
"Hickenlooper's Syndrome" by Terry Lane
"The Reasons I Won't Be Coming" by Elliot Perlman
"The Sandfly Man" by Matthew Condon
"The Goatflap Brothers and the House of Names" by Nick Earls
"Life in Pieces" by Bernard Cohen
"Sacred Heart" by Robert Dessaix
"Nullarbor Honeymoon" by Dorothy Hewett
"Waltzing Matilda" by Herb Wharton
"The Choice for Carlos Menendez" by Sara Dowse
"Sodasi" by Keith Butler
"The Turtles' Graveyard" by James Bradley
"The Preacher in the Tower" by Raimondo Cortese
"The Mind of Howard Hughes" by Luke Davies
"Embroidery" by Marele Day

First Paragraph from the Preface

This book is a collection of a hundred pieces of short fiction written by a hundred Australians. The stories are brought together here for the first time, and all have been published before in hundreds of different places throughout the twentieth century. To read them is to visit the sensibilities, memories and imaginations of writers in this country in the years between Federation and the new millenium. I used to hear the word 'century' when I was lying on the grass at the edge of the local oval while my father played cricket, and the work 'century' still resonates for me with the excitement of a hundred runs on sunny afternoons in rural Tasmania. They didn't often make a century, but when somebody did there was an enormous and most satisfying fuss. This book is in some ways the literary equivalent of such a celebration.

From the Penguin paperback edition, 2000.

This page and its contents are copyright © 2001-02 by Perry Middlemiss, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Last modified: January 21, 2002.