For the Term of His Natural Life

Perhaps Australia's most significant and most famous 19th-century colonial novel," For the Term of His Natural Life "is a narrative of great suffering-of whips, chains, and man's inhumanity. There is no attempt to soften the truth of the degradation and cruelty in convict Australia. Yet the novel is peopled with vivid characters--Rufus Dawes, condemned to transportation for a crime he did not commit, is one of the most unforgettable characters in Australian literature.