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True History of the Kelly Gang | Introduction

Since the publication in 1974 of The Fat Man in History, Australian novelist and short story writer Peter Carey has often played with the literal truth, blurring the line between history and fiction and combining fact with fable. True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) is no different. It is the fictional first-person account of Ned Kelly, the notorious nineteenth-century bushranger and outlaw who is as well-known to Australians, and as fascinating to them, as Jesse James is to Americans or Robin Hood is to the English.

In True History of the Kelly Gang, Kelly is writing a series of letters to his unborn daughter. In these letters, he attempts to explain why he first became an outlaw—because he had no choice, he says—and provide her with a true history because, he explains, he knows "what it is to be raised on lies and silences." His own father was an Irish convict, shipped along with his mother to Australia during the Great Transportation. The past has long been dead or silenced for the transported, as if the memory of what was left behind is too painful to talk about. Kelly himself is painfully aware of what that means for him and his culture: they are a people with no cultural memory, adrift, rootless, and left without any meaningful future.

Kelly's "letters" are urgent, raw, and largely unpunctuated, but they are vivid and uniquely written. He speaks the rough language of an Irish Australian and makes easy references to stories and myths that might be lost on a contemporary audience—or on the daughter whom he addresses—if Carey were not so careful to place them in context. Carey's decision to write Kelly's story in Kelly's voice gives readers an opportunity to understand the man behind the legend.

True History of the Kelly Gang Summary

Prologue

True History of the Kelly Gang opens with an anonymous and handwritten third-person account of Kelly and his gang's last stand in the town of Glenrowan. Kelly himself provokes the battle at Glenrowan when he lures the police, or the "traps," into a shootout. The account describes the moment that defines Kelly in the Australian imagination: Kelly and his boys appear on a hotel veranda, clad in homemade body armor and bucket-shaped helmets, and Kelly declares himself "The Monitor," after a famous iron-sided battleship in service during the American Civil War. The document has an acquisition number and purports to be housed in the Melbourne Public Library, which serves to establish historical authenticity.

Parcel 1: His Life until the Age of 12

Shortly before the end of his career, the historical Kelly composed what has come to be called the "Jerilderie Letter," an 8300-word account of his life, his motivations, and his hopes for the future; which he wanted to have printed in a newspaper, any newspaper. The document was lost or ignored and was never made available to the public, which infuriated Kelly. The True History of the Kelly Gang alleges to be Kelly's second effort as an author, a series of letters to his unborn daughter that "will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false."

Kelly begins his tale with the transportation of his father, John "Red" Kelly, from Ireland to Van Dieman's Land, a small island near Australia known today as Tasmania, for crimes about which Kelly never heard his father speak. Constable O'Neill, a sinister representative of the local police, tells Ned Kelly a story about "A Certain Man," who plotted with others back in Ireland to murder a landowner whose policies they thought unfair. Eventually, this "Certain Man" was caught and transported to Van Dieman's land. Kelly understands this Certain Man" to be his father. Later, O'Neill tells Kelly about the night he saw Red Kelly wearing a dress, which Kelly does not believe until he accidentally finds the dress, exactly as it was described by O'Neill, buried in a metal trunk.

Kelly depicts his mother, Ellen Kelly, as resolute and tough. She alternately fights with and entertains the police in her home. She stands up to the law for her family, above all else. Late in Parcel 1, Kelly commits his own first crime when he kills a neighboring farmer's calf to put food on the Kelly table. Despite Kelly's admissions of guilt, his father is arrested and jailed for poaching, and he later dies as a result of his stay in prison.

Parcel 2: His Life Ages 12-15

Kelly's family, led by their mother, moves to Greta, leaving Kelly and his brother Jem behind to work for their mother's sisters. After the arrest of her brother James and other injustices, Ellen Kelly's dreams of a more prosperous future are dashed. Now that her husband is dead, Ellen Kelly begins to take a number of unsavory suitors.

Harry Power, a bushranger and outlaw, appears at the Kelly's one night. He becomes one of Ellen Kelly's suitors briefly, and then he becomes Ned Kelly's mentor. Power has escaped from Pentridge Prison, where he knew Ellen Kelly's brother James, and he gives Ellen Kelly money to hire a better lawyer for him. Kelly and Jem follow their mother, sisters, and little brother to Greta.

Kelly reveals that Ellen Kelly's dream of fertile land, domestic peace, and a prosperous, legitimate livelihood have taken root in him as well. It is, he will later insist, all he ever wanted. Writing directly to his unborn daughter, he tells her that Ellen Kelly's new house is where she will eventually be conceived.

Parcel 3: His Life at 15 Years of Age

At the wedding of his sister Annie to yet another troublemaker, Alex Gunn, Kelly sees his mother dancing with a "ferret faced fellow" named Bill Frost. He is disturbed by his mother's gay and girlish behavior in Frost's presence. During the reception, Power appears and lures Kelly away for what Kelly believes will be a brief excursion on horseback. In fact, it is the beginning of his apprenticeship to Power.

Kelly and Power ride into the bush to Power's hideout on Bullock Creek, in the Wombat Mountain Range. Soon, Kelly is Power's accomplice in a stagecoach robbery, and though all they manage to get from the robbery is some lace, an English clock, and a bag full of marbles, his fate as an outlaw is sealed: "that was the moment … I made myself a bushranger as well."

Following a fight with one of Power's friends, Kelly is sent home, where he finds that Frost has moved in. He also discovers that his mother has betrayed him and sold him into servitude to Power. The police come for Kelly, to arrest him for his part in the robbery of Chinese merchant Ah Fook, but Power arrives in time to pay Kelly's bail.

Parcel 4: His Life at 16 Years of Age

Not long after Kelly learns his mother is carrying Frost's child, Power arrives at Ellen Kelly's home to claim the merchandise he has paid for: her son Ned Kelly. As soon as Kelly rides off into the bush with Power, Frost abandons Ellen Kelly. When Kelly finds out about it from Power, he vows to murder Frost.

Kelly and Power pass through a hellish brushfire as they search for Frost, whom they find with a prostitute. Kelly shoots Frost in the stomach with his rifle and leaves him for dead on the steps of the whorehouse. Later, and despite knowledge to the contrary, Power assures Kelly that Frost did indeed die of his gunshot wounds.

Following the robbery of R. R. McBean, a powerful landowner, Power and Kelly travel to Tambo Crossing, seeking the safety of anonymity. Frost makes a surprise reappearance and tells Kelly that Power has been, and continues to be, involved with his mother, too. In a blind rage, Kelly almost kills Power, steals his beloved horse Daylight, and embarks on a journey into the bush.

Parcel 5: His Early Contact with Senior Policemen

Kelly returns home, meets his new baby sister Ellen, and learns that the town of Greta is crawling with police, who soon arrest him for his connections to Power and the McBean robbery. As he learns more about what he can expect from the police and the wealthy from increased interactions with them, Kelly's growing... » Complete True History of the Kelly Gang Summary