Australia's Trail-Blazing First Novelist: John Lang

Synopsis

'Writer, journalist, barrister, larrikin' Who was the first Australian novelist? John Lang, born in a Parramatta pub in 1816 with the convict &‘stain&’ upon him, was a singular character. The first native-born person to have a novel published, he was also a newspaperman, a classical scholar and translator, barrister, celebrity, jailbird … enigma. He was hugely energetic, capable and original, but he also had his demons. A larrikin polymath who refused to be bound by convention, Lang didn&’t just want his allotted portion – he wanted all of it. He got a lot of it, too, but not the chalice of immortality. Lang was a serial pioneer. In literature, he also wrote the first &‘detective novel&’ in English, the first convict-system satire, the first Indian travelogue by an Australian, and he created the template for the bush novel. In journalism, he was the first Australian to launch and run a newspaper overseas. And in law, he was the only barrister to ever defeat the mighty East India Company in an Indian courtroom. So why have we never heard of him? This long-overdue biography explores answers to this revealing question as it tracks Lang&’s rise from those humble beginnings to fortune and fleeting fame. Author Sean Doyle tells the riveting story of Lang&’s remarkable life and times across three continents in the age of Empire, when the modern world was young …

Copyright:

2023

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

224 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781923004399

Related ISBNs:

9781923004382

Publisher:

Big Sky Publishing

Date of Addition:

01/03/24

Copyrighted By:

John Lang

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Literature and Fiction, Australiana

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.