Short stories
While the Billy Boils
Henry Lawson · 1896
Synopsis
Fifty-two stories and sketches, first published one by one in the press from 1888. In the best known, a woman alone in the outback, without news for six months of her husband who has gone off droving cattle, keeps watch all night with her dog, Alligator, beside her four sleeping children, waiting for a snake that has taken refuge under the house to come out again. Several stories return to the same character, Mitchell. According to a critic in 1896, they are anecdotes and impressions rather than stories, and they give a gloomy picture of life in the outback.
Context
The collection appeared in Sydney from Angus and Robertson, which had engaged the author the year before for two books; according to Reading Australia, he did not decide the order of the texts and had to accept corrections, in particular of his turns of phrase. The first story he published, in December 1888, is included in the volume. The Queenslander praised the mixture of humour and pathos, while judging most of the pieces to have been written for the Bulletin. Several stories were brought to the screen in 1921 by Beaumont Smith, in a film now lost.
Who it is for
Fifty-two short texts in Australian English, which can be read separately; no French translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Reissued in London in 1913, and in Sydney in 2013 in a version based on the texts published in the newspapers.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.