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A classic of the Australian outback, Such Is Life is the farcical, tragic reminiscences of Tom Collins, philosopher and rogue.​ Joseph Furphy was born at Port Phillip, Victoria, in ​ ‘Half bushman and half bookworm’, Furphy worked as a goldminer, labourer and farmer before.
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Any fan of the "prison novel" or "prison movie" will likely enjoy this book immensely. The lead jailer - Maurice Frere - could easily have been the inspiration for the sadistic wardens of "Shawshank Redemption" and "Cool Hand Luke" respectively. Brief summary: The book surrounds the 19thC Penal Colony of Australia and the various "island prisons" that were set up there.

For the Term of His Natural Life

The inhumanity of that This book was incredible. The inhumanity of that experience is exposed full-force and how it warps both prisoner and jailer alike.


  1. The Privilege of Religious Freedom.
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In the midst of all of this is a tale of improper conviction, con-artists, deception, attempted redemption and "love" all existing in the inhospitable world of 19thC Australia. The writing is far ahead of it's time 19thC , the storyline is incredibly engaging, the descriptiveness of prison life in the penal colony is brutally honest, the characters are deep and rich in every way. The ending is fantastic. Best book I've read in the past year perhaps more. Highly recommended. Bizarrely, my mother bought me this book when I was thirteen. It was bizarre because one of her instruments of emotional abuse during my teenage years came from controlling what I could read or watch.

But then her obsession was with anything sexual, and this must have seemed like a nice old fashioned historical novel. I read it when I was sick and feverish and I can still remember the nightmares. I've been wanting to reread this book for a long time, but even twenty years on I dread starting. View 1 comment.


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    • Feb 08, Thom Swennes rated it liked it. This book is not for the faint hearted. Most people especially history buffs know that Australia was originally used as a penal colony and a great majority of the original European inhabitants were convicts. In Britain deportation was deemed more humane and every much as definite and hanging at Tyburn.

    This was the beginning of the industrial revolution and public senses were changing; slowly. Deportation to a penal colony in Australia for life was, for all intents and purposes, a death penalty; without a body. The horrors and nightmare of life in these colonies was of little interest to the British public.

    Happy in their ignorance this same public silently condoned horrors surpassing slavery that was prevalent at that time in the southern states of the United States. This story could not fail to sway public opinion. If you want a memorable romance this story would fall short of the desired mark. If you are interested is how life really was at that time in the Australian colony, this is the book for you.

    It was good fun reading this Aussie Classic with a bunch of mostly American readers in the Yahoo 19th century reading group.

    Elizabeth Harrower’s The Catherine Wheel (now a Text Classic) – my introduction

    As I was leading the discussion, I had to start by clearing up some assumptions about this strange land of ours downunder. People overseas usually think of Australia as blue skies and sunshine, but for the purposes of this book, the hot and arid landscapes of Australia are irrelevant. Our smallest and most southerly island state is nothing like that.

    Glad to see other reviewers mention The Count of Monte Cristo.

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    I felt strong influence from that, and from Les Mis -- no worse for it, but rather an argument for unabashed influence. It was also an argument for pulp fiction, because it puts its pulp to great uses. A cracking read I pinched that adjective from another review, but it's exactly right. This Penguin edition entitles itself just His Natural Life , which restores an original irony. It has a confused publishing history, but this, Glad to see other reviewers mention The Count of Monte Cristo.

    Beware cheap imitations. Every chapter made me cry.. It's going to take me a year to get over this terrible and beautiful story. Jul 04, Louise rated it it was ok Shelves: australian-setting-author , classics. Sadly, I must report that I found this Australian classic tedious and melodramatic and as such, a major disappointment. Mar 19, Suzannah rated it liked it. Review to come at Vintage Novels. Oct 01, K. So apparently I never reviewed this last year? This book is basically the story of a guy who finds out something scandalous about his family, is then falsely accused of murder, convicted, and sent to the colonies.

    He spends the next millionty years of his life being falsely accused of more crimes and being punished accordingly. Basically, he's Jean Valjean minus the singing and the bread.

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    The first part of this story was completely action packed and I loved it. The second part featured a So apparently I never reviewed this last year? The second part featured a lot of Tasmanian convict history, and details of the establishment of the various penal colonies, which zzzzzz. Especially if you have any background in Tasmanian history, which I do.

    Reading Australia - My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories

    Basically, that section was super dry and read like non-fiction. So on the whole, I really enjoyed this one. Except for the romance, which was pretty squicky at times. About a month ago my wife and I took a road trip through the Australian island state of Tasmania, a beautifully gothic place much haunted by its brutal convict history. It's hard to avoid the old prison museums, the women's factories and, of course, the corresponding literature. This book is a fiction, but it deals with a period in Australian history that was all too true.

    Like About a month ago my wife and I took a road trip through the Australian island state of Tasmania, a beautifully gothic place much haunted by its brutal convict history. Like the grimmer of Dickens' work, Clarke presents a troubling, dark and often shocking insight into the harsh lives suffered by Britain's felons transported to the penal colonies for slave labour and correction.

    With a wide range of characters, all of them exceedingly fleshed-out and engaging - that son of a bitch Maurice Freere, the inept Reverend Meekin and the tragic Reverend North particularly - the story is much more entertaining than a poorer writer might have rendered it. The narrative structure isn't the most conventional for a novel. Clarke jumps several years, sometimes decades, fairly often. Instead of telling a linear story of linked events, he jumps between characters scattered all over time and space, with the wrongly-accused martyr Rufus Dawes being the connection between them all.

    For the Term of His Natural Life is quite a large book, but rarely and I mean this literally does it ever lag. It truly is an Australian masterpiece, a Dickensian epic of Australia's oft-glossed-over past.

    This is a classic? How can this be considered a classic? First of all. It's boooooooooooring. No, it's not because of the style of writing common back then, because I happen to usually really enjoy books written in the 19th century. Seriously, Dickens rules, and while I know one can't go around comparing everyone to Dickens because it will never end well for the other author, I do expect them to be able to write at least some dialogue that doesn't make me cringe and I certainly expect them This is a classic? Seriously, Dickens rules, and while I know one can't go around comparing everyone to Dickens because it will never end well for the other author, I do expect them to be able to write at least some dialogue that doesn't make me cringe and I certainly expect them to know the difference between "then" and "than".

    The Miracles- Such Is Love, Such Is Life

    What I don't look for is turgid monotonous narration interspersed with terrible dialogue that kills off the only likable character about a third of the way through the book. Did I mention it's boring? Still, this was a first for me. I hated it so much, that instead of procrastinating over finishing the book, I actually made myself read it quickly because I was desperate to replace it with something fun to "get the taste out of my mouth", so to speak.

    I'm probably being overly harsh I seem to have really started off this way this year! Normally I'm really nice, I promise!