The Far Country (1952 novel)

"The Far Country" is a novel by Nevil Shute, first published in 1952. The title is a reference to a line in a poem by A E Housman.

In this novel, Shute has some harsh things to say about the new (British) National Health Service, as well as the socialist Labour government, themes he would later develop more fully in In the Wet. He also describes the lot of the 'New Australians'; refugees who are required to work for two years where they are placed, in return for free passage to Australia.

Plot summary

The story is laid partly in London and partly in Australia. It is set in 1950.

Jennifer Morton, a young girl from Leicester but living in London, witnesses the death of her grandmother, the widow of a retired Indian civil servant. Her pension has ceased and she has literally starved to death, despite her apparent prosperity. Before she dies, she leaves to Jennifer a small sum of money sent by a niece in Australia, and asks that Jennifer uses the money to visit Australia and Jane and Jack Dorman, who own a prosperous sheep station in Merrijig Victoria. She does so.

Jennifer finds herself falling in love with the new, relatively unspoiled country, though she continues to worry about her parents. She also meets Carl Zlinter, a 'New Australian'; a Czech refugee who is working at a nearby timber company as a condition of his free passage. A medical doctor, he is unqualified to practice in Australia and looks after First Aid at the lumber camp. But when two of the workers are badly injured and no doctor, nurse or medical facilities are available, he must operate on them, and Jennifer assists him. The two operations are successful, but one man later gets drunk and dies. Zlinter is initially in potentially serious trouble over the unlicensed operations and death, but he is cleared of responsibility.

Jennifer helps Zlinter to trace the history of a man of the same name who lived and died in the district many years before, during a gold rush, and they find the site of his house.

Back in England, Jennifer's mother dies and she is forced to return, but she is now restless and unsatisfied. Zlinter turns up in Leicester; he has found gold dust that the earlier Zlinder earned as a bullock driver and hid beneath a stone. He has used the money from illegally selling the gold to travel to England to ask Jennifer to marry him, and to requalify as a medical practitioner.

Inspiration

The character of Carl Zlinter may have been inspired by Dr Marcus Clarke, who Nevil Shute accompanied in 1948 on his rounds as a country Doctor in Cairns, Australia.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The story was filmed for television in 1986, starring Michael York as Carl Zlinter and Sigrid Thornton as Jennifer Morton, with the story departing somewhat from the novel.

ee also

*Immigration to Australia