Harry Heathcote of Gangoil: A Tale of Australian Bush-Life - Softcover

Trollope, Anthony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1482510731 ISBN 13: 9781482510737

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

A young Englishman, Harry Heathcote, had leased 120,000 acres of bush from the Australian government, on which he ran 30,000 sheep. With him at Gangoil lived his wife, two small sons and his sister-in-law Kate Daly. Giles Medlicot was his nearest neighbor, but the two men had not become friends. Medlicot had purchased land that lay between Gangoil and the river for a sugar plantation and had erected a sugar-mill. The loss of the river frontage was a serious matter to Heathcote and he considered its acquisition by his neighbor a personal affront. This was the more unfortunate as Kate Daly and Medlicot had already fallen in love. Heathcote, high-tempered and imperious, had made many enemies, not only of some of his own workers whom he had discharged, but also of his lawless neighbors, the Brownbies, a father and six sons, whose cattle range bordered on Gangoil. In December when the bush was very dry and fires frequent, the Brownbies, joined by two of Harry's discharged sheepmen since employed by Medlicot, attempted to burn out the entire range. Heathcote and his men spent day and night in the saddle and were later joined by Medlicot - who helped him control the fires, and to win in a pitched battle with the Brownbie gang.

About this title

About the Author:

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. He wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day. In 1867 Trollope left his position in the British Post Office to run for Parliament as a Liberal candidate in 1868. After he lost, he concentrated entirely on his literary career. While continuing to produce novels rapidly, he also edited the St Paul's Magazine, which published several of his novels in serial form. His first major success came with The Warden (1855) - the first of six novels set in the fictional county of Barsetshire. The comic masterpiece Barchester Towers (1857) has probably become the best-known of these. Trollope's popularity and critical success diminished in his later years, but he continued to write prolifically, and some of his later novels have acquired a good reputation. In particular, critics generally acknowledge the sweeping satire The Way We Live Now (1875) as his masterpiece. In all, Trollope wrote forty-seven novels, as well as dozens of short stories and a few books on travel.

From the Back Cover:

This book deals with the problems facing a young sheep-farmer, or 'squatter', in outback Australia. Its hero is modelled on Trollope's younger son Frederic, who had lived in Australia since 1865. Using the conventions of the Christmas story, established by Dickens in the 1840's, the novel shows Harry Heathcote thwarting the envious ex-convict neighbours who harbour his disgruntled former employees, and who attempt to set fire to his pastures.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1482510731
• ISBN 13: 9781482510737
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 142