For the Term of His Natural Life is a novel by by Marcus Clarke, was published in 1872 (as His Natural Life)... Plot Summary : The story starts with a prologue, telling the tale of young British aristocrat, Richard Devine, who is the son of a shipbuilding magnate, Sir Richard Devine. In an incidence of domestic violence, Richard's mother reveals to Sir Richard that his son was fathered by another man, Lord Bellasis. Sir Richard proceeds to threaten the mother's reputation if Richard does not leave and never come back. He leaves him to pack for a while, claiming that he will fetch his lawyer to alter his will so that Richard receives no inheritance. When Richard leaves, he comes across a murder scene: his biological father, Lord Bellasis has been murdered, and Richard witnesses Sir Richard walking away from the scene of the crime. The police come and lock up Richard, who now gives his name as Rufus Dawes (which is used for the remainder of the book), for the murder of Lord Bellasis. Additionally, Sir Richard returns home and dies straight away, possibly of a heart-attack, without altering his will. Rufus Dawes/Richard Devine never finds this out. Rufus is found not guilty of the murder but guilty of the robbery of the corpse and sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of Australia. In 1827, Dawes is shipped to Van Diemen's Land on the Malabar, which also carries Captain Vickers, who is to become the new commander of the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, his wife Julia and child Sylvia, Julia's maid, one Sarah Purfoy and Lieutenant Maurice Frere, Richard Devine's cousin, son of Sir Richard's sister, who would have inherited the fortune in Richard's place. Biography : Marcus Clarke born in 1846 ans dead in 1881 was an English-born Australian novelist and poet, best known for his novel For the Term of His Natural Life. Marcus Clarke was born in London on 24 April 1846, the only child of William Hislop Clarke and Amelia Elizabeth née Mathews. In 1862 William was sent to Northumberland House because of a mental breakdown and died there a year later. Extrait : Sir Richard Devine, knight, shipbuilder, naval contractor, and millionaire, was the son of a Harwich boat carpenter. Early left an orphan with a sister to support, he soon reduced his sole aim in life to the accumulation of money. In the Harwich boat-shed, nearly fifty years before, he had contracted—in defiance of prophesied failure—to build the Hastings sloop of war for His Majesty King George the Third’s Lords of the Admiralty. This contract was the thin end of that wedge which eventually split the mighty oak block of Government patronage into three-deckers and ships of the line; which did good service under Pellew, Parker, Nelson, Hood; which exfoliated and ramified into huge dockyards at Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Sheerness, and bore, as its buds and flowers, countless barrels of measly pork and maggoty biscuit. The sole aim of the coarse, pushing and hard-headed son of Dick Devine was to make money. He had cringed and crawled and fluttered and blustered, had licked the dust off great men’s shoes, and danced attendance in great men’s ante-chambers. Nothing was too low, nothing too high for him. A shrewd man of business, a thorough master of his trade, troubled with no scruples of honour or of delicacy, he made money rapidly, and saved it when made. The first hint that the public received of his wealth was in 1796, when Mr. Devine, one of the shipwrights to the Government, and a comparatively young man of forty-four or thereabouts, subscribed five thousand pounds to the Loyalty Loan raised to prosecute the French war. In 1805, after doing good, and it was hinted not unprofitable, service in the trial of Lord Melville, the Treasurer of the Navy...

For the Term of His Natural Life

Clarke, Marcus Andrew Hislop

Angus&Robertson

Stories

Hale & Iremonger

Poems

Literature & Fiction

Gordon, Adam Lindsay

Contemporary

Nabu Press

Old Tales of a Young Country

History

Australia & Oceania

The Marcus Clarke Memorial Volume: Containing Selections from the Writings of Marcus Clarke, Together with Lord Rosebery's Letter, Etc., and a Biography of the Deceased Author

MacKinnon, Hamilton

'twixt Shadow and Shine

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Title: His Natural Life. [A novel.]Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from some of the 18th and 19th century's most talented writers. Written for a range of audiences, these works are a treasure for any curious reader looking to see the world through the eyes of ages past. Beyond the main body of works the collection also includes song-books, comedy, and works of satire. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:++++ British Library Clarke, Marcus Andrew Hislop;  1875. 3 vol. ; 8º. 12636.d.4.

His Natural Life. [A novel.] Vol. III.

Literary

British Library, Historical Print Editions

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