The Cousin from Fiji
| Author | Norman Lindsay |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Angus and Robertson, Sydney |
Publication date | 1945 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 261 pp |
| Preceded by | Age of Consent |
| Followed by | Halfway to Anywhere |
The Cousin from Fiji (1945) is a novel by Australian writer and artist Norman Lindsay.[1]
Story outline
In the 1890's, 18-year-old Ella Belairs returns home to Ballarat, and her relatives the Domkins, after spending her childhood in Fiji.
Critical reception
The reviewer in The Argus found merit but also some shortcomings: "Each character is a visual image, plus an abstraction. They live in a void; you can't guess where they came from, how they got that way. Those still physically attractive are physical attraction and nothing else. All the others are symbolic grotesques. There isn't, of course, a single adult in the book. In literature, as in drawing, Mr Lindsay's art - beauties, wowsers, pirates, foul fiends, terrifying seniors - is a picture of the reveries of adolescence still in revolt against the taboos of the Victorian age."[2]
In The Sydney Morning Herald, the reviewer found a lot to like about the book: "It is certain that Norman Lindsay will be accused of caricature but he merely exercises the artist's right to select and stress what he needs. This is a quality of imagination. Always the fundamental truth is in his characters, and always he looks at them with a sardonic eye. The underlying note of seriousness and wisdom is likely to be missed by careless readers, because the general tone is buoyant and optimistic and because the novel leaves us with the impression that the world is a pretty good place in which to live."[3]
Television adaptation
The novel was adapted for television in 1972. The television mini-series, of three parts, was directed by Alan Burke, from a script by Barbara Vernon, and featured Ruth Cracknell, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Judy McBurney and Patrick Ward. The mini-series was broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in September 1972.