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!!

Somethin Different

I am not the one who usually raves on about computer games,my husband, Brendan is..but today I take a break from the world of reading to say a word..or two about machinarium. Its the best game I've ever played..bearing in mind I did not grow up playing Super Mario..so no offence to Mario lovers!

Its pretty different from anything I've seen or played. I love the graphics, and the game play is really clever..sometimes Brendan and I got so stuck tryin to play the puzzles, we either consulted the cheat sheet or gave up completely and came back in a few days (or weeks) to try again..lol :P

It's a point and click flash 'adventure' game by Amanita design that should be raved and raved about. How about it Amanita is a Czech game development company...I never knew the Czech were so good at this. The point of the game is that our little robot buddy lost his girlfriend, coz she was abducted by the bad robot guys (The Black Cap Brotherhood) , and we have to help him find her...we find him in a scrap heap and have to put him back together then go into the city, solve a nice heap of puzzles along the way, with a few run-ins with the bad guys before we can save her.

The puzzles are not easy..some are mathematical brain teasers, others depend on sheer luck, or whether or not you were ever much good at space invaders. All in all, I enjoyed it, and the graphics are a feast.. as always I am a sucker for good graphics..hehehe :) The cd we got from EB Games came with and awesome poster and concept sketches...

Try the demo:
http://machinarium.net/demo/

Things Are Looking Very Bleak

Mm, its Saturday, almost evening, and I've felt like writing this since the morning....but I took some rest because I wasn't feeling too well, and now, here I am, finally dragged myself into doing it.

Well, I'm currently ploughing through my copy of Dickens' Bleak House. I've been at it for the past couple of weeks, and boy, I never thought it would take so long! Mind you, I am not complaining, I just never knew..
I have a beautiful old copy I found at an Op Shop and it looks tiny, but I only just realised it has in excess of 900 pages..jaw drop! :!

I guess I realised when I hit page 200, and I felt like I haven't even made a dent in it..sheesh! Anyway, apart from the complaining, I suppose I'd recommend it, seeing as its a Dickens. It lost me a bit at the start, because of the language and the pictures he was trying to paint...it took me forever to figure out that Chancery was court because i did not consult dictionary.com. I was just reading.  It was a slow starter, but I must say it has picked up splendidly now lol :)

The characters Dickens paints are funny, whimsical and fantastic. He has a way with satire, because I can see how he's painting these characters as a stab at 19th century England and its political and moral state (of degradation). So far I have met Mrs Jellyby, and a cast of other characters, who politic for financial support for 'noble' causes while (grossly- I mean horribly) neglecting their own families, Jo the poor boy who sweeps the street for people to cross and earns a mere morsel for it, and the likes of Boodle, Coodle, Doodle..and Poodle, who strut their stuff while court cases drag on like crazy, to the detriment of the many. I must say mrs Jellyby's house reminds me so much of a scene from Alice in Wonderland..I hope I'm not the only one exclaiming in wonderment. :)

I am faithfully following the activities of my heroine Esther, and of course Mr Jarndyce, and I am enjoying it. let's see how much longer I get to enjoy the ride.


p.s: take my review with a a pinch of salt..I'm not an expert..hehehe

The Search For WondLa

I'm listening to the news on telly about Cyclone Yasi, and I'm feeling abit antsy because I've been job hunting and I'm kind of tired of it...so I thought I'd finally do what I've been planning to do fro a while..write my mini review, about Tony DiTerlizzi's 'The Search for WondLa" or "WondLa 1".

Brendan and I happen to have been given a Dymocks gift card as one of our wedding prezzies, and we finally went to use it just before Christmas.. I always browse the fantasy and childrens' section for any good reads, when I happened to spot this one..the cover got me, and flipping through the pages, the illustrations took my breath away..it looked to me like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars?? Needless to say, I was taken hook, line and sinker..

The story is about Eva Nine and Muthr, her 'mother robot' (how cool!) who escapes her home after its being attacked by a hunter, a nasty creature called Besteel. She finds an unlikely friend and companion in Rovender Kitt, and her petOtto, who becomes her massive pet. Their adventures take them all across Orbona..

I should say this was one book I wished wouldn't end..and yet couldn't stop reading. The story is never dull, it kept my attention all through, and once again,I am glad for writers who make a childrens' book that isn't too lame for adults. Best of all, of course, the illustrations.


I'm looking forward to WondLa 2, which I hear Mr DiTerlizzi has in the works..so HURRAY!!!

P.S: Check out http://wondla.com/

The Princess and The Pea

Our cat Snugs, gave me a nice smile today..here he is, when I found him in the bedroom this morning, sleeping 'Princess-and-the-Pea' style..lolest :)

My Red Letter Day

I haven't blogged in a few years- maybe six, and then a couple of months ago it occurs to me to blog again?? I've been entertaining the idea in my mind, and looking for a theme...I finally found it.

I called this my Red Letter Day..which means a special day. I've been through a fair bit the last couple of years, and I guess sometimes it's hard to smile and be joyful and genuinely have a good day. Some days were depressing and some were just trash.

But I've come to realise regardless of how it feels, as long as God is good (which is always), there is a blessing in every day, and I'm going to cheer up and find it. :)