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It was 1786 when Arthur Phillip, an ambitious captain in the Royal Navy, was assigned the formidable task of organizing an expedition to Australia in order to establish a penal colony. The squalid and turbulent prisons of London were overflowing, and crime was on the rise. Even the hulks sifting at anchor in the Thames were packed with malcontent criminals and petty thieves. So the English government decided to undertake the unprecedented move of shipping off its convicts to a largely unexplored landmass at the other end of the world. Using the personal journals and documents that were kept during this expedition, historian/novelist Thomas Keneally re-creates the grueling overseas voyage, a hellish, suffocating journey that claimed the lives of many convicts. Miraculously, the fleet reached the shores of what was then called New South Wales in 1788, and after much trial and error, the crew managed to set up a rudimentary yet vibrant settlement. As governor of the colony, Phillip took on the challenges of dealing with unruly convicts, disgruntled officers, a bewildered, sometimes hostile native population, as well as such serious matters as food shortages and disease. Moving beyond Phillip, Keneally offers captivating portrayals of Aborigines, who both aided and opposed Phillip, and of the settlers, including convicts who were determined to overcome their pasts and begin anew. With the authority of a renowned historian and the narrative grace of a brilliant novelist, Thomas Keneally offers an insider's perspective into the dramatic saga of the birth of a vibrant society in an unfamiliar land. A Commonwealth of Thieves immerses us in the fledgling penal colony and conjures up colorful scenes of the joy and heartbreak, the thrills and hardships that characterized those first four improbable years. The result is a lively and engrossing work of history, as well as a tale of redemption for the thousands of convicts who started new lives thousands of miles from their homes..… (more)
User reviews
I've heard that some Australians are a bit ashamed of their beginnings, but I found these people and their stories magnetic. While undoubtedly some will disagree, the book to me seems less dismissive of the Aborigines whose land was stolen by the British government. That doesn't make what happened any less tragic, but it is a step forward in recognition of e fact that civilization didn't arrive with the convicts. Another civilization did.
In this book, Keneally writes of the first few years of Australia's early colonial history. He begins back in England with detailed discussions of the circumstances and events leading up to consideration of Australia as a penal colony, which was quite remarkable in light of the fact that almost nothing was known of Austalia at that time. Then the book leads us through the provisioning and preparation for the voyage, and quite vividly depicts the voyage of the First Fleet. Finally the book covers the first few years of settlement in Australia, through the time of the departure of Arthur Phillip, the first governor.
A Commonwealth of Thieves is quite readable and very well written. I found that Keneally's book frequently focuses on particular individuals, their circumstances and reactions to this strange new land. While the book uses much of the same source material as The Fatal Shore (which seems to be the definitive history on this subject) Keneally's book was to me somehow more personal, although admittedly more limited in scope. For that reason, I'd recommend it even if you've already read The Fatal Shore or think you know enough about Australian history.
Recommended.
I found the book to be interesting but very detailed and didn't enjoy it quite as much as I had hoped.