Patrick White - A Fringe of Leaves

A sample of the information from the books dust jacket: Returning home after a visit to a reprobate brother in Van Diemen’s Land in the eighteen thirties, Mr Austin Roxburgh , an English gentleman, and his wife Ellen, are caught in a catastrophic storm off the coast of what is today Queensland. The-none-too-seaworthy brig, Bristol maid, founders on a reef and crew and passengers take to the boats. After being driven up and down the coast for weeks, in the course of which Mrs Roxburgh is delivered of a stillborn child in the waterlogged long boat, the survivors succeed in land. Blacks whom the crew fire on retaliate by spearing to death the captain of the vessel and Austin Roxburgh. Stripped naked by women of the tribe, and reduced to wearing a girdle of vines on whack she hides her wedding ring, Mrs Roxburgh reminds her captors slave until rescued by a runaway convict, Her humble Cornish origins hep her endure the hardships they undergo, just as her native sensuality, repressed by the social pretensions acquired her dilettante husband, emerges in the relationship with her convict rescuer Jack Chance.

Although in every way a powerful story of act, A Fringe of Leaves is above all else the portrait of a virtuous and compassionate woman torn by conflicting loyalties to her correct, over demanding husband, whom she will always remember with grateful affection, to her rescuer, who has suffered the torments of a penal settlement , to her own as well as her adoptive class, to God the Tyrant and God of Lover in their battle over humanity

Publisher: London: Jonathan Cape Ltd 1976 First Edition The 405 pages are in perfect unread condition. The hardcover is also in excellent condition with original navy cloth like hardcover with gilt lettering. When you look from the top of the book there is some discolouration. The dust jacket is a wee bit faded in places.

You may like to see the other books I have listed, to combine purchases. Pick up Mt Albert, Auckland.