Description
Convict Days
Authors: Price Warung
Hard cover with dust jacket, good condition, some wear to the dust jacket. Australasian Book Society first edition (1960).
Convict Days by Price Warung (the pseudonym of William Astley) is a searing collection of short stories originally published in The Bulletin during the 1890s that chronicles the brutal realities of Australia’s early convict system. Drawing heavily on archival records and firsthand testimonies, Warung delivers vivid narratives that expose the cruelty of colonial authorities and the human suffering endured by transported prisoners, often suggesting that the institutional “System” was more oppressive than the convicts themselves (adb.anu.edu.au, Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints, Victorian Collections). Comprising thirteen tales in the Australasian Book Society’s 1960 edition—including poignant episodes from Norfolk Island, Sydney, and Hobart—the collection blends stark realism, empathy, and irony to deliver a powerful indictment of penal society and colonial injustice (Victorian Collections, Biblio, austlit.edu.au).
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