The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories (Penguin Modern Classics)

One of the great observers of Australian life, Henry Lawson has become part of the Australian national psyche, and his short stories and verse have come to affect how Australian's view their country. Yet at his best Lawson transcends even the very bush, the very outback, the very up-country, the very pub or selector's hut he conveys with such brevity and acuity- he makes specific places universal.

Henry Lawson is too often regarded as a legend rather than a writer to be enjoyed. In this selection Lawson is revealed as a writer whose delightful, humorous, wry and moving short stories continue to delight generations of readers. This is the essential Lawson collection - the classic of Australian classics.

This edition includes an introduction by John Barnes.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I 
The Drover's Wife 
The Bush Undertaker

II 
In a Dry Season 
The Union Buries Its Dead 
Hungerford

III 
'Rats' 
An Old Mate of Your Father's 
Mitchell: A Character Sketch 
On the Edge of a Plain 
'Some Day' 
Shooting the Moon 
Our Pipes 
Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster

IV 
The Geological Spieler 
The Iron-bark Chip 
The Loaded Dog

V 
Brighten's Sister-in-law 
A Double Buggy at Lahey's Creek 
'Water Them Geraniums' 
Joe Wilson's Courtship 
Telling Mrs Baker

VI 
A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father

Notes and sources

Glossary

Prescribed text for NSW Syllabus English Advanced & English Standard: HSC 2027-2030: Texts and human experiences.