Australia Felix (1917) is a novel by Henry Handel Richardson. Based on
the life of her parents, Australia Felix is the first in a trilogy of
novels later published as The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930). The
trilogy has earned praise from countless authors and critics for its
startling depictions of a man's decline due to mental illness and the
lengths to which his wife must go to care for their young family. "In a
shaft on the Gravel Pits, a man had been buried alive. At work in a deep
wet hole, he had recklessly omitted to slab the walls of a drive;
uprights and tailors yielded under the lateral pressure, and the rotten
earth collapsed, bringing down the roof in its train." Into this
dangerous world of mining, Richard Mahony arrives in search of fortune.
As the proprietor of Digger's Emporium, his business depends on the
trust of his customers, most of them rugged, hard-drinking gold miners.
But the men find it hard to respect Mahony, a teetotaler whose
upper-class sensibilities strike them as snobbish at best, insulting at
worst. As his store slowly fails, Richard turns his attention to the
young Polly Turnham, a servant at the local hotel. When they marry,
Polly suggests to her husband that he abandon his business and turn to
medicine instead. His practice in Ballarat is a success, allowing them
to start a family and live comfortably--for a time. With a beautifully
designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of
Henry Handel Richardson Australia Felix is a classic of Australian
literature reimagined for modern readers.
