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Keesing,
Nancy.
JOHN
LANG
&
"THE
FORGER'S
WIFE"
A
True
Tale
of
Early
Australia
John
Ferguson,
1979.
First
Edition.
234
pages
hardcover
in
dustjacket
418
grams
John
George
Lang,
born
at
Parramatta
in
1816
and
grandson
of
a
First
Fleet
convict,
was
our
first
native-born
writer
of
fiction.
His
novel,
The
Forger's
Wife,
and
his
collection
of
short
stories
entitled
Botany
Bay,
or
True
Stories
of
the
Early
Days
of
Australia
are
important
contributions
to
our
literature
and
to
our
knowledge
of
our
national
beginnings,
despite
the
fact
that,
judged
by
absolute
literary
standards,
Lang
is
a
minor
writer
His
childhood
and
youth
fall
within
the
establishment
period
of
Sydney
and
New
South
Wales
and,
being
the
keen
observer
that
he
undoubtedly
was,
his
fictional
stories
are
based
largely
on
fact
and
on
people
and
events
that
he
saw
around
him.
Lang
has
the
ability
to
take
city
and
country
backgrounds
and
people
for
granted
and
without
self-consciousness
His
books
reflect
the
lives
of
his
people:
they
are
not
disguised
guide
books,
pamphlets
on
national
history,
or
treatises
about
emerging
Australian
characteristics.
Neither
does
he
deal
almost
exclusively
on
the
harsher
aspects
of
the
convict
system
as
so
many
of
our
earliest
writers
do.
Lang
depicts
early
New
South
Wales
in
every
stratum
and
faction
An
outstanding
feature
of
this
edition
of
The
Forger's
Wife
is
the
excellent
and
detailed
account
of
John
George
Lang's
life
in
Sydney
from
his
birth
until
he
finally
left
Australia
for
India,
never
to
return,
in
1842;
of
the
people
and
events
that
influenced
him
during
those
years;
and
of
several
of
his
Sydney
contemporaries
who
are
undoubtedly
transmuted
into
characters
in
The
Forger's
Wife
This
edition,
with
its
detailed
introduction
and
annotations
by
Nancy
Keesing,
is
a
notable
addition
to
our
literature
and
to
the
social
history
of
our
earliest
times
THIS
ITEM
IS
A
SMALL
PARCEL
WEIGHING
BETWEEN
250
AND
500
GRAMS,
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DETAILS
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