The Well Dressed Explorer

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The Well Dressed Explorer
Author Thea Astley
Country Australia
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Angus and Robertson, Australia
Publication date 1962
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)

The Well Dressed Explorer (1962) is a Miles Franklin Award winning novel by Australian author Thea Astley. This novel shared the award with The Cupboard Under the Stairs by George Turner.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The novel follows journalist, George Brewster, who moves from city to city, from empty love affair to empty love affair, until he dies. He is married, but faithless to his wife...and is ultimately a "pathetic figure".[1]

[edit] Themes

The themes of this novel are common to Astley's novels: "the hurts inflicted inadvertently and deliberately on others, the terrible shallowness underlying the inability to identify imaginatively with others, and the destruction of others and of the self by wrongly conceived actions."[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Taylor and Perkins (2007), p. 246

[edit] References

  • Middlemiss.org
  • Taylor, Cheryl and Perkins, Elizabeth (2007) "Warm words: North Queensland writing" in Patrick Buckridge and Elizabeth McKay (ed.) By the Book: A Literary History of Queensland, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press
Preceded by
Riders in the Chariot
Miles Franklin Award recipient
1962
with The Cupboard Under the Stairs
Succeeded by
Careful, He Might Hear You