The Dickens Boy

In The Dickens Boy, Tom Keneally has proved once again that he is a great storyteller as he weaves a narrative around the experiences of two of Charles Dickens' sons in Australia.

Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, better known as Plorn, arrived in Melbourne at the end of 1868 to try to prove to his father and, more importantly, to himself that he could be successful and was not worthless as his father seemed to imply. Sixteen year old Plorn travelled to a large sheep station near the Darling River in northern New South Wales where he had to adjust to a very different environment compared to England and learn many new skills.

His brother, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, was already in Australia working on another property. The brothers were not the only sons of well known English writers in Australia as the son of Anthony Trollope was also trying his luck in the colonies.

A major issue faced by Plorn was that he had managed not to read any of his father's books before leaving England, although he knew a little about most of them. When he came to New South Wales he discovered that his father was revered by everyone he met and people wanted to know what it was like being the son of a great writer. Plorn attempted to explain how he only knew his father as a person. Plorn and Alfred's relationship with their father was complicated as Charles Dickens had separated from their mother and was in a relationship with another woman. The boys needed not only to reconcile the world view of their father with the person that they knew but to establish their own identity in a new land.

As the cover of the book suggests, cricket was one of the occasional past-times between teams from neighbouring properties and towns. The cover is of a well known painting by Russell Dysdale painted in 1948.

There are parallels between Plorn's experiences described in this novel to part of my family story as my great, great grandfather, aged nineteen, arrived in Melbourne from England in August 1869 to learn to work, like Plorn, on sheep stations in Victoria and New South Wales.

References:

Adrift in Australia: Charles Dicken's youngest son finds a new story  - review - SMH 22 May 2020 [also same review published in The Age 23 May 2020 with title A Son Grows out of his Father's Shadow]

Mr Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (1852-1902) - Parliament of NSW

Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens - Monument Australia

Unlucky Plorn Dickens - SMH 4 November 1939 - Trove

The Tale of Edward Dickens - ABC Late Night Live (audio) 1 April 2020

Dickens of a Time - SMH 24 December 2002

The Children of Charles and Catherine Dickens 10 - The Victorian Web