''Mr Scobie's Riddle'' (1983) is a novel by Australian writer
Elizabeth Jolley
Monica Elizabeth Jolley (4 June 1923 – 13 February 2007) was an English-born Australian writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s and forged an illustrious literary career there. She was 53 when her first book was published, ...
. It was originally published by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
in Australia in 1983.
Synopsis
Mr Scobie is admitted to a nursing home which is ruled over by the domineering Matron Hyacinth Price.
Critical reception
Writing in ''The Canberra Times'' Lyn Frost noted that the novel "is a much looked-for new novel by one of Australia's most original authors. Once more she has turned her attention to the elderly...Wry, moving humour."
Lucy Frost reviewed the novel for ''The Australian Book Review'' and stated: "Jolley’s compassion for the people who ordinarily slide by without attention has always given her fiction a special kind of gentleness...It is the edge created by comedy when the distorted in life evokes laughter rather than tears. The cumulative effect of the laughter in situations which are not intrinsically funny is to create a sense of unease in the reader. The distortions are funny, but they are also distortions and as such threaten to become sinister."
Publication history
After its original publication in 1983 in Australia by publisher Penguin Books
the novel was later published as follows:
*
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
, Australia, 1985 and 2010
* Persea Books, USA, 2012
The novel was also translated into Italian in 2014.
Awards
The novel won the
Age Book of the Year
''The Age'' Book of the Year Awards were annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's ''The Age'' newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. After 1998, they were presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival
Melbourne Writer ...
Imaginative Writing Prize in 1983.
See also
*
1983 in Australian literature
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1983.
Events
* The judges of the 1983 Miles Franklin Award announced there was no book entered of sufficient merit to receive the award.
Maj ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mr Scobie's Riddle
1983 Australian novels
The Age Book of the Year Awards – Fiction Award-winning works