Review of Marcus Clarke by Michael Wilding and Price Warung (William Astley) by Barry Andrews

Abstract

Michael Wilding's study is determinedly appreciative. As he points out, appreciation has grown anew along with a redirecting of attention to Clarke which began in the 1950s and which by the 1970s is 'in full spate'. Wilding develops (probably more than any other writer except for Brian Elliott in his biography) one of the main aspects of this revival—the viewing of Clarke as a writer of fascinating variety and not simply as a one-book author (of His Natural Life).

Accordingly this new study stresses 'the range and achievement of this extraordinarily prolific writer'—novelist and short story writer, dramatist and poet,journalist and critic, as well as editor and historian. Though Clarke is related to his colonial milieu (with 'colonial' no longer seen as having a limiting, a simple and a set significance), he is also seen as 'one of the first great internationalists in Australian writing' in theme and inspiration. (It might be noted that internationalism has not often been allowed colonials.)