Author | Louis Stone |
---|---|
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Genre | Fiction |
Publisher | Methuen, London |
Publication date | 1911 |
Media type | |
Pages | 293pp |
Preceded by | – |
Followed by | Betty Wayside |
Jonah (1911) is a novel by Australian writer Louis Stone.[1]
Jonah, a hunchback larrikin, lives in a Sydney slum where he is the leader of the local "Push", a street gang. But his life changes when he becomes father to a son, and he strives to break away from his previous life.
A reviewer in The Sydney Morning Herald understood the worth of the novel from its first publication: "In Jonah, Mr. Louis Stone has given us an excellent novel. He has taken a phase of Australian life which has been rather neglected by local writers, and laid his setting in the slums of Sydney of a few years ago. Mr. Stone knows his subject, and writes with humour and observation, and a great deal of kindliness. His theme is often squalid, and the surroundings often repellent, but the author, without idealising, does not lay undue insistence on the unpleasant."[2]
Writing about the book in The Queensland Times as it was about to be reprinted in 1933, Aidan de Brune stated: "Competent critics declare that this book is a worthy successor to Robbery Under Arms and For the Term of His Natural Life, amongst Australian novels that can properly be called "classic.""[3]
Jonah was adapted for a television series by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1982.[4] It also provided the basis for the musical Jonah Jones by John Romeril and Alan John, first produced by the Sydney Theatre Company in 1985.[5][6]