Tirra Lirra by the River (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Jessica Margaret Queale
- First Published: 1978
- Type of Work: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The early 1900’s until around 1970
- Setting: Brisbane, Sydney, and London
- Principal Characters: Nora Porteous, Grace, Dorothy Irey Rainbow, Olive Partridge, Colin Porteous, Lewie, Hilda, Lisa, Fred
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Freedom, Self-discovery, Memory, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Suicide, Twentieth century, Gender roles, Exile or expatriates, Marriage, Alienation, Friendship, Mental illness, England or English people, Women’s issues, Oppression, Women, Divorce, Abortion, London, Health, Idealism, Single people, Citizenship, Romanticism, Naivete, Happiness, Australia or Australians, Dressmaking or dressmakers
- Locales: London, England, Sydney, Australia, Brisbane, Australia
The Novel
Tirra Lirra by the River begins when Nora Porteous, age seventy, return from London to Brisbane, to her family home which she left forty-five years earlier. Weary from her long trip, Nora succumbs to pneumonia and is attended during her long convalescence by a kind local couple. In bed, in series of searching remembrances, Nora takes the reader through three periods of her life: her romantic, unhappy girlhood in Brisbane, her years of marital oppression in Sydney, and her years of struggle and happiness in London. These recollections are fragmented and...
[The entire page is 2292 words long]
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