Text Classics

Selected Poems

Lesbia Harford

Little published in her lifetime, Lesbia Harford died young in the late 1920s. Her short lyrical poems display a candour and dynamism unusual for her time and place

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Lilian’s Story: Text Classics

Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville’s debut novel, complete with a special new introduction, is now available as a Text Classic. A must-read for fans of one of Australia’s most prominent writers.

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Time without Clocks: Text Classics

Joan Lindsay

A must-read memoir for fans of Australian literary and art history, written by Picnic at Hanging Rock author Joan Lindsay

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Cafe Scheherazade: Text Classics

Arnold Zable

A moving tribute to the spirit of survival, Arnold Zable’s beloved novel Cafe Scheherazade is now a Text Classic.

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Myself When Young: Text Classics

Henry Handel Richardson

The unfinished autobiography of one of the great Australian novelists-Henry Handel Richardson, the pen name of Ethel F. Lindesay Robertson. From the author of The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney and…

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The Cockatoos

Patrick White

An essential story collection from one of the foremost novelists of the twentieth century, now a part of the Text Classics series

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Shooting Star: Text Classics

Peter Temple

Shooting Star is classic Peter Temple, and now a Text Classic.

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A Dutiful Daughter: Text Classics

Thomas Keneally

Australian literature’s strangest novel, written by its most familiar novelist

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Fishing in the Styx: Text Classics

Ruth Park

Following on from A Fence Around the Cuckoo, this is the second volume of autobiography by one of Australia’s best storytellers, Ruth Park, author of The Harp in the South…

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A Fence Around the Cuckoo: Text Classics

Ruth Park

The first volume of autobiography by celebrated writer Ruth Park, author of The Harp in the South, and winner of the Miles Franklin Award, the Age Book of the Year…

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Kangaroo: Text Classics

D. H. Lawrence

A landmark D. H. Lawrence novel, considered to be among the best writing about Australia.

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A Stairway to Paradise: Text Classics

Madeleine St John

From the author of the bestselling Women in Black, an extraordinary novel about ordinary people.

Alex and Andrew are friends. And Barbara … Barbara is a goddess. Here is the…

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A Pure Clear Light: Text Classics

Madeleine St John

Simon and Flora Beaufort have three perfect children and a comfortable, happy life in London. When Flora takes the children for a month-long vacation in France, Simon stays home to…

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Whispering In The Wind: Text Classics

Alan Marshall,Shane Maloney

Featuring Australian folk heroes alongside witches, giants and princesses, and a bunyip, this forgotten fairy tale is a story of courage, persistence and humour.

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Memoirs Of Many In One

Patrick White

An essential late novel from one of the foremost novelists of the twentieth century, now a part of the Text Classics series

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Paperback

Came Back To Show You I Could Fly

Robin Klein

An unlikely friendship, between a young boy Seymour and the older Angie, shows the human side of addiction.

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The Sky in Silver Lace

Robin Klein

Final Melling sisters novel–Grace, Heather, Cathy and Vivienne leave the freedom of rural Australia for new life in the city.

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Dresses of Red and Gold

Robin Klein

The irrepressible Mellings sisters’ escapades continue as they encounter the challenges of puberty in small town Australia in the 1940s.

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All in the Blue Unclouded Weather

Robin Klein

The funny and realistic adventures of four spirited sisters, growing up in an Australian country town in the 1940s.

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Honour & Other People’s Children: Text Classics

Helen Garner

Two novellas, delving into our connections with those we love, and the pain of breaking those connections. Introduced by Michael Sala.

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Drylands: Text Classics

Thea Astley

A powerful tale of a small town destinies shaped by violence, debts and disappointments. From one of Australia’s most respected and acclaimed novelists.

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A Kindness Cup: Text Classics

Thea Astley,Kate Grenville

An Australian town is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. But one man is intent on reminding the town of its brutal past.

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The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow: Text Classics

Thea Astley

A study in the psychology of isolation, and a portrait of the constant violence between white and black Australians, still alive today.

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Reaching Tin River: Text Classics

Thea Astley,Jennifer Down

A young Australian woman, the daughter of an American musician, looks back on the people and forces that shaped her life.

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Australia In Arms: The Story of Gallipoli

Philip Schuler

A crucial on-the-ground account of the Australian Imperial Forces’ Gallipoli campaign by one of Australia’s key World War I correspondents.

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Mystery Spinner: Text Classics

Russell Jackson,Gideon Haigh

In 1950, aged in his mid-thirties, ‘tall, shy, shambling’ Jack Iverson burst forth from obscurity in suburban Melbourne, ‘bowled like no man before’ and became a national sensation, then faded…

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The Tournament: Text Classics

John Clarke

The most unusual tennis tournament in history is about to start. Albert Einstein’s seeded fourth. Chaplin, Freud and Van Gogh are also in the top rankings. World number one is…

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The Life and Adventures of William Buckley: Text Classics

John Morgan,Tim Flannery

William Buckley, soldier and escaped convict, is the legendary wild white man of colonial Australia. In 1803 he escaped from the official settlement in Victoria. For 32 years he lived…

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Selected Stories: Text Classics

Amy Witting

Amy Witting was a master of the short story, the genre in which she felt “most at home’. Her subjects-childhood and school, marriage and loneliness, the cruelty of men and…

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The Visit

Amy Witting

The Visit is a sensitive and keenly observed portrait of a rural Australian town called Bangoree in the 1970s, centring on the social life of a group of ‘local intellectuals’.

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The Brush-Off: The Murray Whelan Novels: Text Classics

Shane Maloney

Winner, Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, 1996

“When I hear the word culture I think excellence and I think access…‘

I wasn’t sure where this was going, but at…

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Me and Mr Booker: Text Classics

Cory Taylor

The Text Classics edition of Cory Taylor’s extraordinary debut novel, Me and Mr Booker, a sharply observed and darkly comic story about lust, deceit and the line between adolescence and…

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Tobruk 1941

Chester Wilmot,Peter Cochrane

This is a landmark Australian war story that celebrates resistance, courage, sacrifice, mateship and sheer grit.

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The Little Hotel

Christina Stead

A diverse assortment of guests seeks solace at a cosmopolitan Swiss hotel. Stead highlights the changing fortunes of postwar Europe.

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A Little Tea, a Little Chat: Text Classics

Christina Stead

Robert Grant is a womanizing New York businessman, whose shady dealings unravel when he meets his match in Barbara Kent.

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The Puzzleheaded Girl

Christina Stead

Four interlinked novellas. Honor Lawrence, like many of Stead’s vivid characters, highlights women’s growing independence through her refusal to conform.

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The Beauties and Furies

Christina Stead

Set in Paris between the wars. A love triangle, against this backdrop of political upheaval, that highlights women’s growing independence.

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For The Term Of His Natural Life

Marcus Clarke

Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life.

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Carry Me Down

M. J. Hyland

Spell-binding psychological thriller about a boy’s obsessive and dangerous desire to see the truth. A singular tale of disturbed love, it announces M. J. Hyland’s arrival as a great writer.

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Aunts Up The Cross

Robin Dalton

The author’s story of her childhood, a secure and magic place surrounded by eccentric aunts and uncles, and an army of guests and hangers-on sharing a sprawling, disorderly house in…

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Dog Boy

Eva Hornung

Abandoned in a big city at the onset of winter, a hungry four-year-old boy follows a stray dog to her lair. There he joins four puppies suckling at their mother’s…

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A Change In The Lighting

Amy Witting

A suburban Australian mother is forced to re-evaluate her life when her husband unceremoniously announces that he’s leaving her for a younger woman.

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The Dyehouse

Mena Calthorpe

Set in 1950s Sydney, this ensemble novel reveals the lives of men and women working in a textile factory.

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The Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends: Text Classics

Helen Garner

Two screenplays, showcasing Helen Garner’s ability to get to the core of the small acts that define our relationships.

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Madame Midas: Text Classics

Fergus Hume

When the suave French convict Gaston Vandeloup escapes to the goldfields of Ballarat, he is destined to meet the remarkable Madame Midas, who has made her fortune in Ballarat’s fabulous…

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Blue Skies: Text Classics

Helen Hodgman

On its initial release in 1976, Helen Hodgman’s Blue Skies was met with critical acclaim. Blue Skies now takes its rightful place as a Text Classic, cementing Helen Hodgman’s place…

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Take Me To Paris, Johnny

John Foster

First published in Australia in 1993. An unforgettable memoir of love, loss and humanity.

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Visitants

Randolph Stow

An investigation into a Patrol Officer’s suicide in New Guinea leads to revelations about his secret past.

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Text Classics

Selected Poems

Lilian’s Story: Text Classics

Time without Clocks: Text Classics

Cafe Scheherazade: Text Classics

Myself When Young: Text Classics

The Cockatoos

Shooting Star: Text Classics

A Dutiful Daughter: Text Classics

Fishing in the Styx: Text Classics

A Fence Around the Cuckoo: Text Classics

Kangaroo: Text Classics

A Stairway to Paradise: Text Classics

A Pure Clear Light: Text Classics

Whispering In The Wind: Text Classics

Memoirs Of Many In One

Came Back To Show You I Could Fly

The Sky in Silver Lace

Dresses of Red and Gold

All in the Blue Unclouded Weather

Honour & Other People’s Children: Text Classics

Drylands: Text Classics

A Kindness Cup: Text Classics

The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow: Text Classics

Reaching Tin River: Text Classics

Australia In Arms: The Story of Gallipoli

Mystery Spinner: Text Classics

The Tournament: Text Classics

The Life and Adventures of William Buckley: Text Classics

Selected Stories: Text Classics

The Visit

The Brush-Off: The Murray Whelan Novels: Text Classics

Me and Mr Booker: Text Classics

Tobruk 1941

The Little Hotel

A Little Tea, a Little Chat: Text Classics

The Puzzleheaded Girl

The Beauties and Furies

For The Term Of His Natural Life

Carry Me Down

Aunts Up The Cross

Dog Boy

A Change In The Lighting

The Dyehouse

The Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends: Text Classics

Madame Midas: Text Classics

Blue Skies: Text Classics

Take Me To Paris, Johnny

Visitants