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Eleanor Dark
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The Timeless Land (A&R Classics) Kindle Edition

by Eleanor Dark (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 115 ratings
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An outstanding literary achievement, meticulously researched and deeply felt, this portrait of the earliest days of the European settlement of Australia remains unrivalled.
the year 1788: the very beginning of European settlement. these were times of hardship, cruelty and danger. Above all, they were times of conflict between the Aborigines and the white settlers.Eleanor Dark brings alive those bitter years with moments of tenderness and conciliation amid the brutality and hostility. the cast of characters includes figures historical and fictional, black and white, convict and settler. All the while, beneath the veneer of British civilisation, lies the baffling presence of Australia, the 'timeless land'.the Storm of time and No Barrier complete the timeless Land trilogy.
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  1. Print length
    612 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Angus & Robertson
  5. Publication date
    March 1, 2013
  6. File size
    886 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eleanor O'Reilly was born in Sydney. In 1922, she married Eric Dark, a general practitioner and the couple moved to Katoomba and lived there for the remainder of their lives, with occasional journeys away. Eleanor pursued her writing as time permitted, completing nine novels by the 1950s, including the classic work The Timeless Land. Varuna Writers Centre in Katoomba was formerly the Darks' home.

From AudioFile

Eleanor Dark's 1941 novelistic tribute to her native Australia comes to life as James Condon depicts the arrival of the British in 1788, the reactions of the aboriginal people, and the clash of cultures that followed. Rather than just read, Condon declaims the text, making each word important, gliding over musical aboriginal names, and showcasing the poetic nature of the text. Aurally, he shows the difference between the mostly imperious Brits and the rough convicts who accompanied them. You hear the awe and wonder with which the natives encountered sailing ships, firearms, and alcohol. An informative introduction is included, also read by Condon, who was in his mid-eighties at the time of this tour-de- force performance. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ALM73QG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Angus & Robertson (March 1, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 886 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 612 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 115 ratings

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Eleanor Dark

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
115 global ratings
The Timeless Land
5 Stars
The Timeless Land
This is a richly colorful story of the first five years of English settlement in Australia, and of the black people whose life and culture and natural gaiety were so cruelly destroyed in that short time. The story is a dramatic one, eloquently told.The few boatloads of convicts who land in Sydney Harbor in 1788 make poor pioneer stock indeed. That they survive at all is due to the courage and wisdom of their Captain Phillips. His story is told here as is that of a fictional character, Andrew prentice, a red-headed convict who escapes, takes a native wife, and flourishes with her in the wilds while his fellow English back at the settlement are near starvation. Parallel to the slow establishment of the white colony runs the sad history of the black men's demoralization, personified in Bellilong, an historical figure and a leader in his tribe, who develops a fatal friendliness toward the English. A visit to London completes his undoing, and symbolizes the coming degeneracy of his whole race.An excellent story and fresh background make this Mrs. Dark's most ambitious and important novel.
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Top reviews from the United States

M D'A
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writer, brilliant novel
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2023
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I absolutely love this book. It should be widely known, widely read, and never forgotten. You come away with a sense of who the English colonists were, and what they experienced -- how hard it was at first -- and how the colony grew -- but more than that, you come away with a sense of what the land was before they arrived, how the native people lived, how they knew their land and were in harmony with it, and how over time the growing number of colonists changed their world. In my view, the author shows a warm regard and respect for the aboriginal people, and the reader feels it too. The novel is beautifully written, and one feels, at least, that the author has taken "the history books" (the honest ones...) and turned them into magic. I should note that I have the audio book version (and the subsequent volumes await in hardcover), and the narrator is fantastic -- he throws himself into every character with energy and charisma. Listening to this book has been an extraordinary experience.
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Rudolph Bar
4.0 out of 5 stars Early history of Australia
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013
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Never before found such an in-depth description of the native Australians. It is an insight of one of the lost people on this planet
3 people found this helpful
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Anne
5.0 out of 5 stars He loves it.
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2016
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This was purchased for my husband to read. He claims it is one of the best books written. He loves it for the historical content as well as the depiction of the human condition.
One person found this helpful
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Trying to Keep Up
3.0 out of 5 stars The history of the how Australia was settled by the ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2014
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The history of the how Australia was settled by the English is interesting, but I found the characters rather flat.
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hereswhatithink
4.0 out of 5 stars Timeless
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2015
So this was very good but I'm glad I'm done now :)

Timeless Land is a historical novel about the very beginning of the penal colonization of Australia, viewed from both the native and the white viewpoint. I thought the native insight was extremely well done, sensitive without being condescending, and really quite insightful, especially when you see how the natives, while not exactly prospering were self sufficient, while at the same time the "enlightened" whites starved for lack of ship's stores.

I think its important for prospective readers need to know that this is very much a historical novel. The history is well researched and many actual letters and diary entries are quoted which are a real peek into the past but can also be just a bit dry.

As far as characters go, many are factual but for one reason or another, I never really became invested in them. Admittedly, some people were more interesting than others (I was especially fascinated with an escaped convict who went native, as well as a boy who kept running away to live with the tribes--both of which were fictional, go figure) but when circumstances stepped in to kill someone off, I was able to look on in a pretty detached way. And I do like to feel a bit more. Call me sentimental, but that's how I roll.

Oh and by the way , if frequent POV changes irritate you, this book is full of them. I found it jolting at first but eventually got into the swing of it and it didn't bother me so much.

Still, its worth reading and the writing is excellent.

Recommended for lovers of chunky, historically- heavy sagas. (By the way this is only book one in a trilogy, so if you like what you read there's mooooore!)

CONTENT: Mild PG
SEX: alluded to but not shown
VIOLENCE: Some mild violence but not overly descriptive
PROFANITY: Mild (D and B)
2 people found this helpful
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Jennifer Cameron-Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars ‘Bennilong and his father had come down to the cliffs again, alone.’
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2015
The Timeless Land (first published in 1941) is a work of historical fiction by Eleanor Dark (1901–1985). It is the first novel in The Timeless Land trilogy, which is about the European settlement and exploration of Australia.

The narrative is told from English and Aboriginal points of view. It opens with Bennilong’s memory of being with his father Wunbula, waiting for the boat with wings which Wunbula had seen some time earlier. When the boat does not return, its sighting becomes less significant. But when the First Fleet arrives in January 1788, Bennilong remembers what his father had seen and spoken of.

The novel describes the first years of the colony, the attempts by Captain Arthur Phillips to impose European values and standards on the Aborigines and to involve them in European settlement. It also describes the famine suffered by the settlement, and the devastating effects of introduced disease (particularly smallpox) on the Aboriginal population. The novel ends in 1792, but the epilogue returns focus to Bennilong and provides a glimpse of how his life has been dislocated.

I first read this novel in the early 1970s, and loved it. It was the first novel I’d read that tried to look at the European settlement in 1788 from both an Aboriginal and European perspectives. And Australia itself, the ‘timeless land’ seen through very different eyes.

Lieutenant Tench thought: ‘This place did not welcome you, like Rio; it did not look particularly fertile, and it was certainly not languorous. Nor did it repel you, like Table Bay; it offered no enmity, no resistance. It simply waited.’

Wunbula’s earlier knowledge was that ‘Nothing could change the land, the eternal land, to which each generation of men was but one indrawn breath of its endless survival.’

Rereading this novel reminded me of the joy I found in reading it the first time, my sense that Eleanor Dark had captured something of the mystery of the land, as well as a sense of the impact of European arrival on both Europeans and Aboriginals. There are always some elements of the past which we could wish were handled differently. I’m currently rereading the second novel in the trilogy, ‘Storm of Time’, seeing Australian history though slightly different eyes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Andy Zaple
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! This is a book to be read by anyone who wants to understand Australian history.
Reviewed in Australia on June 26, 2017
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I just don' t have the words to describe the insight, the beauty and the sheer majesty of this book. A masterpiece.
One person found this helpful
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william smith
5.0 out of 5 stars A good read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2016
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Informed,enlightening. A good read.
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Ado
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2014
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Excellent
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John Williams
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reading
Reviewed in Australia on August 27, 2015
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Most interesting reading in regard to the aboriginal perspective.
e.g. comparison of cultures highlighted that the white race is not all that supreme.
Excellent reading
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William Kearney
5.0 out of 5 stars A real window to our roots
Reviewed in Australia on October 2, 2015
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Every real Australian should read it!
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