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Wanting: A Novel
by FLANAGAN, RICHARD
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0802144772
- ISBN 13
- 9780802144775
- Seller
-
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Grove Press. Used - Very Good. May have light to moderate shelf wear and/or a remainder mark. Complete. Clean pages.
Synopsis
"A Knopf book."-- tp. verso.
Reviews
On Jan 25 2016, CloggieDownunder said:
Wanting is the fifth novel by award-winning Australian author, Richard Flanagan. In 1841, Mathinna, an orphaned young Aboriginal girl, one of the remaining Van Diemen's Land indigenous who were kept on Flinders Island, was plucked from the "care" of George Augustus Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines, to become the subject of an experiment in civilisation of the savage, conducted by the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John Franklin and his wife, Lady Jane Franklin.
Mathinna loved the red silk dress she was given, but hated wearing shoes. She wanted to learn to write because she knew there was magic in it. "Dear Father, I am a good little girl. I do love my father. ……come and see mee my father. ……I have got sore feet and shoes and stockings and I am very glad……..Please sir come back from the hunt. I am here yrs daughter MATHINNA". But when her (dead) father failed to come to her after several letters, her passion for writing faded. "And when she discovered her letters stashed in a pale wooden box….she felt not the pain of deceit for which she had no template, but the melancholy of disillusionment".
In tandem with Mathinna's story, Flanagan relates incidents in the life of Charles Dickens, some twenty years later. The tenuous link between the two narratives is this: when Sir John Franklin is missing in the Arctic on his search for the North West Passage, Lady Jane asks Dickens to help refute allegations of cannibalism made by explorer, Dr John Rae. Dickens also writes and stars in a play about Franklin's lost expedition, during which he meets Ellen Ternan, the woman for whom he leaves his wife.
Flanagan's interpretation of Mathinna's life is certainly interesting: his extensive research into the lifestyle and common practices in the colony in the mid-nineteenth century is apparent, and he portrays very powerfully the mindset that led to the virtual extermination of the native population. While the Dickens narrative does have interesting aspects, it is so far removed from the Tasmanian story as to seem somewhat irrelevant, more of an interruption than an enhancement.
Flanagan states in his Author's Note that "The stories of Mathinna and Dickens, with their odd but undeniable connection, suggested to me a meditation on desire-the cost of its denial, the centrality and force of its power in human affairs. That, and not history, is the true subject of Wanting". Perhaps this statement would be better placed in a preface so that readers do not find themselves distracted wondering about the relevance of the Dickens narrative. Excellent prose make this, nonetheless, a powerful read.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Magers and Quinn Booksellers
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1242763
- Title
- Wanting: A Novel
- Author
- FLANAGAN, RICHARD
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0802144772
- ISBN 13
- 9780802144775
- Publisher
- Grove Press
- Place of Publication
- New York
- This edition first published
- 2010-06
Terms of Sale
Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Please contact us immediately if you are unsatisfied with your order. Returns accepted within 3 weeks of delivery. All returns must include original packing slip.
About the Seller
Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Biblio member since 2006
Minneapolis, Minnesota
About Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Magers and Quinn Booksellers is the Twin Cities' largest independent book store. We sell new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Remainder Mark
- Usually an ink marking of some sort which indicates that the book was designated a remainder. In most cases, it can be found on...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...