For the Term of His Natural Life is widely regarded as the greatest convict novel in Australian literature. First published serially in the 1870s and later issued in various shortened book forms, this 1929 Angus & Robertson edition represents the First Complete (Unabridged) Edition in book form, restoring Clarke’s full original text.
The novel follows the tragic story of Richard Devine — later known as Rufus Dawes — a young Englishman unjustly convicted and transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Through Dawes’ ordeal, Clarke exposes the brutality, corruption, and psychological torment embedded within the colonial penal system.
Set across notorious convict settlements including:
Macquarie Harbour
Port Arthur
Norfolk Island,
the narrative portrays chain gangs, solitary confinement, floggings, and moral despair — but also explores endurance, identity, injustice, and the machinery of empire.
Blending documented penal history with Dickensian narrative force, Clarke’s work is both literary fiction and a powerful indictment of 19th-century transportation. The novel helped shape Australia’s cultural memory of its convict origins.
Henry Lawson later praised the early serialized version, while lamenting the mutilation of earlier book editions — making this restored 1929 unabridged issue especially significant.
This Angus & Robertson edition is important because it presents the full, restored text; includes an Introduction by Hilary Lofting; and contains 45 full-page illustrations.
Earlier editions were truncated. This book sought to correct that literary omission.
The 1929 First Complete Unabridged Edition remains a highly desirable Australiana title and cornerstone piece for convict-history collections. Angus & Robertson editions from this period carry solid institutional and private collector interest.
