Oz lit: 5 must-read Australian classics

Australia’s contemporary literary scene is rich and diverse. From Jane Harper’s gritty crime novels to Tim Winton’s sense of magic and wonder, through to Melissa Lucashenko’s powerful realism, contemporary fiction in Australia is alive and absolutely kicking.

But we are also a nation of literary classics, the likes of which can be ranked alongside some of history’s great novels.

Let’s take a look at five of Australia’s great classics and why they should be on everyone’s reading list…

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock

No Australian novel has the immense ability to terrify its reader like Picnic at Hanging Rock. This haunting tale, written by Joan Lindsay in the mid-1960s, is often considered a true story, despite it coming to Lindsay in a dream.

Picnic at Hanging Rock tells the story of a group of girls who disappear at the eponymous Hanging Rock whilst on an excursion, leaving a trail of fear and mystery behind them…

2. Seven Little Australians

This fascinating novel, written in 1894 by Ethel Turner, follows the adventures (or misadventures) of the Woolcot children and their oppressive father, Captain Woolcot.

This is a truly legendary Australian novel from a long-gone era, and has been extensively adapted since its release well over 100 years ago.

3. Dark Emu

The most recently written novel on this list, but very much a modern day classic, Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu challenges the notion that Indigenous Australians were mainly hunter gatherers in the pre-colonial period.

Examining the diaries of early Anglo settlers, Pascoe finds evidence to suggest that Indigenous Australians engaged in large scale agricultural techniques and not solely those used by the British Empire to justify dispossession.

Dark Emu is an important novel that re-examines Indigenous life in Australia before the arrival of colonial forces.

4. My Brilliant Career

This is perhaps the quintessential classic Australian novel, and propelled its author, the legendary Miles Franklin, to instant literary fame.

Set in rural Australia, My Brilliant Career follows the life of the creative, highly imaginative Sybylla Melvyn, determined to escape the harsh realities of the country and make it as a famous author.

However, love and life get in the way, and Sybylla’s dream becomes challenged as existence becomes more trying. It is a wonderful novel about feminine choice and rebellion at a time when women were expected to do no more than marry, bear children and tend to the home.

5. My Brother Jack

George Johnston’s My Brother Jack is an incredibly touching tale about two brothers set in and between both world wars. The narrator, the younger, more successful brother, leads an essentially empty existence apart from the great success he has achieved as a journalist.

His older brother, the more “blokey” and less intelligent Jack, is less successful but leads a fulfilling life, being both hardworking and well-liked. A highly evocative meditation on the “Aussie battler”, My Brother Jack documents a time of great change for the individual, family and nation.

This a good place to get started

The above novels round out the quintessential introduction to Australian literature. Tough, scary, exuberant, morose, all of these words can be used to describe above the novels, with each providing a valuable insight into Australian life throughout different periods of history.

If you are looking for a way to start your Oz lit adventure, the above is the perfect place to start: you will be taken into a series of microcosms that seem almost inextricably linked in their Australianism.

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