The Witch's Thorn

The Witch's Thorn (1951) is a novel by Australian author Ruth Park.[1]

The Witch's Thorn
AuthorRuth Park
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
PublisherAngus and Robertson
Publication date
1951
Media typePrint
Pages220 pp
Preceded byPoor Man's Orange 
Followed byA Power of Roses 

Plot outline

The novel is set in the fictional New Zealand North Island town of Te Kana. After the disappearance of her consumptive mother and the death of her beloved grandamother, Bethell Jury is adopted by her Aunt Amy whose husband is the local grocer and whose son is an unpleasant lout.

Critical reception

The initial press reaction to this novel was not good: The Advertiser (Adelaide) found "There is wonderful material in this for a colorful novel of New Zealand life, but Ruth Park resolutely sticks to the horror and the sordidness whose sensational exploitation marred her Sydney novels";[2] The Examiner (Launceston) was blunt in stating that " it is inspired by cruelty, disease, despair, blasphemy and death";[3] and The Sydney Morning Herald noted that The New York Times called it "unplotted and nervously episodic".[4]

Possibly in a sort of response to these views, Kirkus Reviews noted: "There's an unblinking realization of the rough and tumble of bare subsistence, of the good in the bad and the worst in the best of us that gives this a raw insistence which may repel or attract."[5]

gollark: I like having access to "reliable food" and "clean water" and "internet access".
gollark: I doubt they'll go entirely anarchoprimitivist since it actually *isn't* cool and good in the wild with no tools.
gollark: There are tons of saner voting systems than first past the post, but almost nowhere uses them, unfortunately.
gollark: Why? It can be turned on and off electronically.
gollark: Probably, people will complain but then proceed to use them anyway.

See also

Notes

Dedication: For Charles Hutchinson: unforgotten.[1]

References
  1. Austlit - The Witch's Thorn by Ruth Park
  2. "Latest Fiction" The Advertiser, 12 January 1952, p6
  3. "The Low-Down on Down Under" The Examiner, 5 July 1952, p12
  4. "Ruth Park Book Criticised" The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 December 1952, p3
  5. "The Witch's Thorn by Ruth Park" Kirkus Reviews
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