Christina Stead Week 2016
Well, here we are at the end of Christina Stead Week, and hopefully the profile of our ‘forgotten’, ‘underestimated’ Australian author has improved, thanks to the contributions of readers around the world.
As you can see from the new Christina Stead Week page here at ANZ LitLovers, the reading week has brought a wealth of posts covering
- opening lines to five of nine Stead’s novels (Seven Poor Men of Sydney; The Beauties and Furies; House of All Nations; and The Man Who Loved Children at ANZ LitLovers; and Hetty Fox: her luck at The Australian Legend
- reviews of six of Stead’s nine novels:
- Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934): See Lisa’s ANZ LitLovers review;
- The Beauties and Furies (1936): See Lisa’s ANZ LitLovers review;
- The Man Who Loved Children (1940): see Lisa’s ANZ LitLovers review and Kathryn Gossow’s review at Fiction Fix;
- For Love Alone (1945): see Dorothy’s ‘appreciation’ at Dorothy Johnston.com and Sue’s review at Whispering Gums
- Cotter’s England / Dark Places of the Heart (1966): see Bill’s review at The Australian Legend
- The Little Hotel (1973): see Lisa’s ANZ LitLovers review and Guy’s review at His Futile Preoccupations
- reviews of short stories
- The Salzburg Tales (1934): See Brona’s thoughts at Brona’s Books
- The Puzzleheaded Girl, Four novellas (1965): see Kaggsy’s review at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
- Ocean of Story: The Uncollected Stories of Christina Stead, edited by R. G. Geering (1985) Guy Savage at His Futile Preoccupations has very usefully listed all the stories from the table of contents in this collection
- See Sue’s review at Whispering Gums of the title story ‘Ocean of Story’
- See Sue’s review at Whispering Gums of three stories under the theme of the Early Years: ‘The Old School’; ‘The Milk Run’ and ‘The Little Demon’.
- See Guy’s review of ‘A Harmless Affair’
- examples of literary influences on Stead sourced from Hazel Rowley’s biography – which was a response to Sue’s Monday Musings on 1902, the Year of Christina Stead’s birth at Whispering Gums; and
- an analysis of modernism in The Beauties and Furies, using Modernism a Very Short Introduction by Christopher Butler as a guide,
- an analysis of the nature of speech in The People and the Dogs at Pykk, see ‘Howled in unison and singly‘ and
- two reviews of biographies about Christina Stead:
- Christina Stead, a Life of Letters by Chris Williams: see Bill’s review at The Australian Legend,
- Christina Stead, A Biography by Hazel Rowley: see Lisa’s ANZ LitLovers review
If you check out the comments on these posts, you can see that there has been stimulating discussion as well!
My sincere thanks go to everyone who contributed to #ChristinaSteadWeek. If at any time there are more reviews I’d be very happy to add them to the Christina Stead page.
PS Thanks also to Text Publishing whose release of four new titles in the Text Classics range all available in eBook or print) was the catalyst for holding the reading week, and who provided the giveaway copy of The Beauties and Furies.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
I just finished “The Man Who Loved Children’ this evening. Introducing Stead to me was really wonderful. I can barely articulate my feelings about the, as there ar so many dimensions to consider.
I do wonder why the publisher had her change the setting to Washington DC and Maryland. I think it would have felt more genuine had the setting stayed in Australia.
I loved Australian Literature, at least what I have ready, but it barely skims the surface. There are many more fantastic books, based on Stead’s work. Thank you.
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By: heidithedreamer on November 21, 2016
at 5:51 pm
This is just a very quick response to your kind comment, Heidi, we are about to cop a severe storm here and I need to shut down the computer. But I’m delighted to hear that you loved TMWLC, do please let me know if you review it on your blog and I will add the link.
Must go!
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By: Lisa Hill on November 21, 2016
at 6:12 pm
Thank you Lisa for Christina Stead Week. I loved joining in and more to the point learned a tremendous amount about this great author which I would not have gained from reading her books singly. And the page is a great idea which I am sure will prove an important resource well into the future.
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By: wadholloway on November 21, 2016
at 6:51 pm
I hope so Bill, and thanks again for your contribution:)
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 4:55 pm
Impressive achievement in the week (or so!!) Lisa. I do appreciate the little nudge to get stuck into at least a bit of that book that has been hanging around my shelves for 25 years.
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By: whisperinggums on November 21, 2016
at 7:03 pm
*chuckle* We all need a nudge for one book or another, I reckon!
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 4:56 pm
Thanks Lisa and to all the contributors. It’s been so uplifting knowing that there are readers enjoying such a great writer and some for the first time.
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By: Fay Kennedy on November 21, 2016
at 8:07 pm
Thanks, Fay, for all your support and encouragement:)
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 4:58 pm
Thanks for hosting – it’s been great fun taking part and also reading everyone’s posts! :)
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By: kaggsysbookishramblings on November 21, 2016
at 10:01 pm
Thanks, Kaggsy, I think I’ll be reading The Puzzle-headed Girl next, thanks to you:)
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 4:59 pm
What a tremendous resource you’ve collected here Lisa!
It is taking me much longer than I thought to read The Salzburg Tales. Each tale deserves to be considered and read separately but then they have to be considered as part of the whole.
Fascinating but slow.
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By: Brona on November 21, 2016
at 10:01 pm
It’s amazing when you put everyone’s contributions together, isn’t it? Thank you for your contribution!
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 5:01 pm
I’m getting ready to read The Little Hotel – next week I think, if all goes well. Thank you for the intro for me and some links. My review will be on my blog.
Happy Thanksgiving (even if you don’t formally celebrate).
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By: beckylindroos on November 22, 2016
at 2:33 am
Yay, Becky, that will be great:)
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 5:03 pm
I put up something on The People With the Dogs: http://pykk.blogspot.com/2016/11/howled-in-unison-and-singly.html
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By: Pykk on November 22, 2016
at 3:08 am
Fantastic, thanks, I will add it to the CS page now!
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By: Lisa Hill on November 22, 2016
at 4:33 pm
Thanks for hosting Christina Stead week, and for all the work you put into it.
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By: Dorothy Johnston on November 23, 2016
at 4:41 pm
Thanks, Dorothy, and especially for your contribution:)
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By: Lisa Hill on November 23, 2016
at 5:25 pm
Well done Lisa! The week brought out a great range of posts about Stead.
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By: Nathan Hobby on November 25, 2016
at 9:00 am
I’m really chuffed about it and so grateful to everybody.
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By: Lisa Hill on November 25, 2016
at 4:12 pm