Complete Book Of Australian Folk Lore

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Publisher: Child And Henry Books
Publisher Place: Sydney
Publisher Year: 1988
Edition: Reprint

Description: 414 pages. Book is in general good condition. There is some light reading wear and age marks on pages present, but still a presentable copy.

Publishers Description: For such a young country, Australia has a strongly developed and unique folk lore heritage. With its origins in an amalgam of the more rebellious elements of British society, the Australian character quickly developed traits that were more than a mere sum of its antecedent parts. Ties with England, Scotland, Ireland, and America flavoured the development of much of Australias folk the tunes of folksongs are those the early settlers brought with them, the words are very much Australias own. The tall story (the bush lie) is perhaps the most distinctly Australian form--and is still flourishing. Rhyme and rhythm are great aids to memory. So, in a society that was at one time largely illiterate, verse was a popular form, and the poems and ballads have a drive and simple directness of language that is their particular charm. Using material written at the time, this book looks at the history that shaped Australias traditions--the initial struggle for survival, the sufferings of the convicts, the isolation from all that was familiar, the distances tramped from one job to the next, the necessity for sticking together which formed the code of mateship, the struggles of the squatters and the free selectors, the excitement of the gold rushes and the hardships of the diggers, and especially the daring exploits of the bush rangers.

ISBN: 9780867772821