''Dark Palace'' is a novel by Australian author

Frank Moorhouse Frank Thomas Moorhouse (21 December 1938 – 26 June 2022) was an Australian writer who won major national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, France and t ...

that won the 2001

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...

. The novel forms the second part of the author's ''Edith Trilogy'', following '' Grand Days'' (1993) and preceding '' Cold Light'' (2011). The trilogy is a fictional account of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

; it traces the strange, convoluted life of a young woman who enters the world of diplomacy in the 1920s, through to her involvement in the newly formed

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was ...

after World War II.

Plot

A direct sequel to ''Grand Days'' and beginning in 1931, the novel traces the private and public lives of an Australian woman Edith Campbell Berry, during her final years as an official of the League of Nations based in Geneva. Berry's crumbling marriage parallels the futility of the League's attempts at negotiated disarmament, though she is reunited with her former lover, a cross-dressing Englishman. Returning on leave to Australia, Berry finds she now has little in common with her homeland, after her years of moving in European diplomatic circles. She remains with the Secretary-General's Office at the half-empty ''Palais des Nations'' throughout World War II, while a skeleton Secretariat attempts to continue the peacetime functions of the League. In 1945 Berry accompanies a delegation of senior League officials to San Francisco, in the expectation that they will all have key roles to play in the newly established United Nations. To her humiliation and anger they are excluded from any involvement in the setting up of the new organization. The League itself is dissolved a few months later and Berry moves to Canberra, aspiring to a new career in the Australian Department of External Affairs (''Cold Light'').

Reviews

* *

Awards

, 2001: winner * In 2001 in a press release the administrators of the

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Government with the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry. As of 2013, it is reportedly Australia's richest literary ...

, the

State Library Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in th ...

, erroneously named ''Dark Palace'' as the winner of that year's award, when in fact the decision had gone to Peter Carey's ''

True History of the Kelly Gang ''True History of the Kelly Gang'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize a ...

''.Patrick Barkham, "Prize fight"
''The Guardian'' Australia, 16 October 2001. Retrieved 7 March 2017

Portrait

A portrait of

entitled, "Uncle Frank's Dark Palace" was painted by Prof Wei Cheng (his nephew by marriage), to mark the writer's 80th birthday. Full of symbolism, the huge portrait references the trilogy, “ Grand Days" with his favourite

martini Martini may refer to: * Martini (cocktail), a drink made with gin and vermouth, garnished with an olive or a lemon twist * Martini (vermouth), a brand of vermouth * Martini (surname), an Italian surname * Martini (automobile company), a Swiss auto ...

in reach; a copy of the book "Dark Palace;" while the cold light reflection on his face from the computer screen symbolises the third and final book in the trilogy, " Cold Light." The initial sitting for the portrait was done in the library of the

Royal Automobile Club of Australia The Royal Automobile Club of Australia (RACA) is an Australian motoring organisation, which has also incorporated the Australian Imperial Services Club since 1987. The RACA was established in March 1903 in Sydney, and is the oldest motoring ...

in Sydney, where he sat in a favoured corner of the Club which is reflected in the painting's background. For it was in RACA where he wrote for a time, while a resident of the club. He was a member of RACA for 32 years. The portrait was entered in the Archibald Prize 2019. (Oil on Canvas. 2m x 1.5m.)

References

{{Miles Franklin Award 2000 Australian novels Australian historical novels Miles Franklin Award–winning works Novels set in Switzerland Novels set in Australia Novels set during World War II Novels by Frank Moorhouse Random House books