A Convict's Story

It's taken me awhile to finish this review..but here I am now with a pile of dishes I don't feel like doing in the kitchen and a baby who's asleep..so I may as well :)

 I scored a few awesome books a little while back. My husband's step-dad had a box of books from his late Grandma. He wasn't going to read them but he didn't just wanna send them to the charity store. I love old books, and they ended up on my bookshelf. He, satisfied to keep them in the family, me thrilled to have em.
They're chiefly 'Australian' books, about the settlers, and Aborigines.
I've read my first one, For The Term of His Natural Life, by Marcus Clarke. I haven't read Australian literature this good. I was left thrilled, satisfied yet pining for more, happy and yet sad when I turned the last leaf. Amazing literature. You can read the summary here. I hope it's ok.

For me, this was almost an Australian Les Miserables. The similarity between Rufus Dawes and Jean Valjean (from Les Miserables) is striking.. they are like the convict-priests. Men whom the law has branded as bad and hopeless, and whose destiny it seems forever to be chained, hunted, wanted, hated. But they are both such lovers of men..the opposite of what they really should be. I guess it makes you think of how society brands certain people, because of what they do or have done in the past, without giving them a chance.
I think if either of the had submitted to all the bad stuff that life threw at them (which was volley after volley especially on the part of Rufus Dawes) ,they would have turned out full of anger, bitterness and hatred. They would have been exactly what society expected of them. But their hearts were preserved by the power of God..that strong, strange power of love and good. Though their lives do seem to end prematurely, and they do not see happiness as we would picture it, they leave a mark. :) A mark on the heart of Cossette, of Marcus, of Rev North...and of course of me, as the reader.

Sure bad things do happen to good people, but good people are remembered for the good things they did when bad things happened to them. Oh, and of course, lets quit judging each other. Love is louder. xx

For the Term Of his Natural Life: Summary

Here is the summary:

We follow the story of Richard Devine aka Rufus Dawes from his life in England when his 'father' (not actually his birth father) disowns him when he finds out he is a bastard child. Richard leaves home, vowing to never return, to save his mother from the shame of everyone finding out. By extreme bad luck he is, on his way from home, implicated in a murder (of his own biological father), tried and sentenced to transportation to a penal settlement in Tasmania.
By now he has hidden his identity, and gives the false name of Rufus Dawes.
From then on, life goes from bad to worse. He falls sick on the convict-crowded ship, and is later accused of leading a mutiny, which he actually helped avert. No one believes him when he pleads innocence. He is sent to Macquarie Harbour, with the worst of convicts, and is constantly punished for attempting to escape.

After a botched suicide attempt he finds himself left at Macquarie Harbour, which has been abandoned for Port Arthur. It so happens that Mrs Vickers, (whose husband is the commander of Macquarie Harbour) her child Sylvia Vickers, and Capt Frere get left behind too, when convicts seize the ship they were to travel in. Capt Frere is Richard Devine's cousin, but does not recognize him in the person of Rufus Dawes. Dawes comes across them, and joins their party and, inspired by the child Sylvia, he saves their lives. He builds the boat that sends them to safety, and he navigates when the jealous Capt Frere has given them up for dead.
When they are saved, Capt Frere turns on him, accusing him of attempting to murder them and attacking the child. He paints himself as the hero, saying he saved her life by giving her his own food, which is what Dawes actually did. The child is sick, and loses her memory, her mother is sick and dies. So Dawes has none to defend him, and is sentenced to life imprisonment. He believes Sylvia is dead.

Meanwhile Sylvia grows into a young woman, and having lost her memory, believes Frere to be her saviour, they are engaged to be married. The convicts who seized the ship and left them at Macquarie Harbour are arrested and put on trial. Dawes is brought up to identify them. When Sylvia sees him, she swoons and seems she will remember, but she does not, and upset, leaves. Meanwhile Dawes realises who she is, and tries to plead his innocence but she has left, and no one believes him.
He later escapes from jail, and comes to beg her to defend him, but she still does not remember. He thinks she has betrayed him, and gives up hope. He is sent to Hobart.

Meanwhile, John Rex, another convict escapes with the help of his once-lover, Sarah Purfoy. He is a spitting image of Rufus Dawes, and by luck has found out his true identity as Richard Devine. He escapes from Sarah, goes to England, pretends to be Richard, and lives the high life.

Dawes is at Norfolk Island years later, when Capt Frere becomes the new commander there, bringing with him Sylvia. She is unhappy, realising now that he is a rough, selfish and cruel man. The Rev North, chaplain of the Island, falls in love with her and proposes that they run away together. They are to leave on the same boat, Sylvia supposedly to go see her father. After Sylvia walks in on one of the warders torturing Dawes (on her husband's orders), she stops the torture and saves him. Frere is angry and strikes her.

The Rev North has been reaching out to Dawes, having been with him on two settlements, and he is the only chaplain Dawes has been open to, realising that he has a heart, and mercy. Rev North is an alcoholic. Dawes reveals to him the story of what happened on Macquarie Island, and begs him to tell Sylvia. He does not tell her because he doesn't want it to interfere with his and Sylvia's affair.

Meanwhile Sarah Purfoy finds Rex in England and threatens to expose him unless he tells Richard's mother she is Richard's wife. The mother, at the same time, decides to confront him with her suspicions that he is an impostor. He is confronted and bows, Lady Devine finds out that her son has been convicted for the murder, which John Rex actually commited. We find out that Lord Bellasis, whom he murdered was his father, therefore Dawes is his brother. Sarah takes Rex away, and he is found to have suffered a stroke on their way to Sydney.

On the night they are to sail, North comes back to confess his guilt to Dawes, but Dawes stops him, realising his plans with Sylvia. He then pours out his life story, begging North to spare Sylvia from doing wrong, and showing him how, through love, he has sacrificed much. North leaves confused. Meanwhile, the guard is drunk on alcohol that North gave him, and Dawes slips out in North's coat. He heads for the ship and it sails, thinking he is North, who is still on the Island. He hides himself, but that night a storm rises, and Sylvia comes to him.

She realises he is impersonating  North, but, at the same moment, her memory returns of how he saved her. And they hold each other as the storm rages.
We open the next day with their dead bodies floating out together to sea.

Two Years Later..

Wow,

I can't believe it's been just over two years since my last blog post..how time flies when we're not looking!!
My husband and I now have a 4 month old son, Elijah aka Chubb Chubb (the Chubb Chubbs are coming!!), I've been through work, pregnancy, quitting work because of pregnancy, pre-natal depression, changing churches (currently), moving house (we now have a backyard for sonny-boy), and now being a Mom.
And I have read a whole lotta books while I was at it all lol..good ones too. Boy, do I have a lot to say about em. Some of my favourite absolute classics have been discovered from Les Miserables to Fox in Socks!!

Well, good to be back. Let's see where we go from here! It's a new day, a red letter day!!