Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
1966
NB: This essay, unpublished until this edition of 13 th August 2009, was originally
written in longhand while Elizabeth Simpson (later Elizabeth Sheppard) was a
Bachelor of Arts student at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1966,
for the Australian Literature course. All academic work was at that time submitted
in longhand, usually written with a “fountain pen”, as students did not usually
have access to typewriters, and computers were not available. Elizabeth’s tutor
for Australian Literature was Dr. Brian Elliott, author of The Landscape of
Australian Poetry. His comments on the essay, and the mark awarded by him, are
noted in red.
“And after all, what is the very utmost I can hope for, under the
very best of circumstances? An acquittal! A thing, of itself,
perfectly useless to me – a thing, which would find me bereft of
home, of character, of property, of almost every thing,
desirable in life.”1
which, because of its egoistic nature, makes the hero only semi-
heroic.
“Of little use was the heritage that he had gained. A convict-
absconder, whose hands were hard with menial labour, and
whose back was scarred with the lash, could never be received
among the gently nurtured … All the wealth in the world could
not purchase the self-respect which had been cut out of him by
the lash, or banish from his brain the memory of his
degradation.”3
1
Savery, H., Quintus Servinton, 1962, Brisbane, p.263.
2
Op.cit. p.263.
3
Clarke, Marcus, For the Term of his Natural Life, O.U.P. 1952,
pp.226-227.
The temptation of the author to identify himself with the hero is
one not easily resisted, and Henry Savery succumbed consciously to
it. Quintus Servinton was Savery’s attempt to justify himself to the
world, and as such it is a tragic work. As in His Natural Life, self-pity
is often the dominating passion, and he often lapses into passages
of detailed character study of Quintus, which painfully enumerate
his faults, praise his virtues and in general rationalize his behaviour.
Joe Gursey’s animal fear of McGovern ridicules him and points to the
inevitable debasement which men undergo under the penal system.
Clarke, Marcus, For the Term of his Natural Life. O.U.P., 1952.
Savery, Henry, Quintus Servinton. Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1962.
Astley, William (pseud. Price Warung), Tales of the Convict System,
Vols. I & II.
Penton, Brian, Landtakers. Angus and Robertson, 1934.
Herhenhan, L., “The Redemptive Theme in His Natural Life.”
Australian Literary Studies, June 1965.
Rees, Leslie, “His Natural Life – the long and short of it.” Australian
Quarterly, Vol. 14, 1942.
Elliott, Brian R., Marcus Clarke. Oxford, 1958.
Elliott, Brian R., Singing to the Cattle.
Roderick, C., The Australian Novel.
Miller, E. Morris, “Australia’s First Two Novels.” Tasmanian Historical
Research Association, Papers and Proceedings, Sept. 1957 Vol.16
No.2.
Hadgraft, Cecil, Australian Literature. London, 1960.
Miller, E.Morris, Australian Literature. Melbourne, 1940.
Dutton, Geoffrey, ed., The Literature of Australia. Pelican, 1964.