For The Term Of His Natural Life

Information about For The Term Of His Natural Life

For the term of his natural life may refer to:

For the term of his natural life, a legal term for a convicted individual. Usually associated with murder and involving imprisonment until death.
For the Term of his Natural Life, a fictional story on the life of a convict in Australia by Marcus Clarke.

***For the Term of his Natural Life***
Author	Marcus Clarke
Country	Australia
Language	English
Publisher
Publication date	1870-1872

For the Term of his Natural Life, written by Marcus Clarke, was published in the Australian Journal between 1870 and 1872 (as His Natural Life), appearing as a novel in 1874. It is the best known novelisation of life as a convict in early Australian history. Described as a "ripping yarn," and at times relying on seemingly implausible coincidences, the story follows the fortunes of Rufus Dawes, a young man transported for a murder which he did not commit. The harsh and inhumane treatment meted out to the convicts, some of whom were transported for relatively minor crimes, is clearly conveyed. The conditions experienced by the convicts are graphically described. The novel was based on research by the author as well as a visit to the penal settlement of Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Plot introduction

3AW 1940's billboard advertising For the Term of his Natural Life in Melbourne

Structurally, For the Term of His Natural Life is made up of a series of semi-fictionalised accounts of actual events during the convict era, loosely bound together with the tragic story of its hero. Most of the incidents and many of the individual characters are easily identifiable from historical sources including Marcus Clarke's own non-fiction work Old Tales of a Young Country. The plot illustrated below is based on the escape of Alexander Pearce, the notorious "Pieman", who ate his companions during two different escape attempts from the Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement on the West Coast, Tasmania.

Typical of Victorian-era convict novels, Rufus Dawes, is a wrongfully convicted gentleman. Under the prevailing morality of the time, a murderer would have been inappropriate for a hero in popular fiction.

Plot summary

Among other dramatic events in the novel that are based on true events, a group of convicts escapes from the Port Arthur penitentiary. Getting lost in the wilderness, lacking survival skills and soon running out of food supplies, the men begin to starve and end up cannibalising each other. The last one remaining, Gabbett, is found on a beach by the crew of a whaling vessel, with the half-eaten arm of one of his comrades hanging out of his swag.

Literary significance & criticism

The original tragic ending was considered unsuitable for readers in the United States of America, as a result of which Marcus Clarke added additional chapters taking the story up to the Victorian gold rush for US editions. Most modern publications and film media presentations of the story have been based on the US edition.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

For the Term of His Natural Life was the basis for one of the first full-length motion pictures films, produced in Australia in 1908 (22 minutes). A major Hollywood movie featuring silent screen stars George Fisher and Eva Novak was produced in 1927, and a TV movie was produced in Australia in 1983 starring Colin Friels as Dawes. The Australian movie His Convict Bride aka For the Term of Her Natural Life (1918) also alluded to Clarke's work.

Footnotes

References

NOTE - many different editions of this book exist. Lurline Stuart, Research Associate at the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, has produced an edition showing a core text and variations between the other texts produced during Clarke's life, together with detailed commentary.
Clarke, Marcus For the term of his natural life Adelaide : Rigby, Seal books edition, 1970. ISBN 0851792227
other editions - South Yarra, Vic. : Claremont Book, 1990. ISBN 0670903787 :
The entire text exists online at http://web.srv.adfa.edu.au/JITM/HNL/Annotation_Viewer.html

External links

Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime, nominally for the entire remaining life of the prisoner, but in fact for a period which varies between jurisdictions: many countries have a maximum possible period of time (usually 50 years) a prisoner may be
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Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (24 April 1846—2 August 1881) was an Australian novelist and poet, best known for his novel For the Term of his Natural Life. He was born in London on the 24th of April 1846 and was educated at Highgate School.
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In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government.
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Anthem
Advance Australia Fair ^[1]

Capital Canberra

Largest city Sydney
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See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.

A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
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English}}}
Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
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Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
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A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.

Novelisations usually add additional background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, due to the fact that novels are generally longer
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convict is a person who has been convicted of a crime. Convicts often become prisoners after a conviction. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences usually are not termed "convicts.
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Legend
Current territory Former territory
* now a Commonwealth Realm now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations

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Transportation or penal transportation is used to refer to the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony, for example by France to Devil's Island and by the United Kingdom (then including Ireland) to its colonies in The Americas, from the 1620s to 1770s, and Australia
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Port Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction.
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For the professional footballer, see Alex Poster.

Alexander Poster (1790 - 1824) (also known as Pierce, see reference cited Mark Jefferies) was a convict and bushranger who escaped from the Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement and is best known for
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The Macquarie Harbour Penal Station was an early penal settlement in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Australia. It was located on Sarah Island, in the remote reaches of Macquarie Harbour, and was the first to be built in the colony, in 1822.
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West Coast of Tasmania is the part of the state that is strongly associated with wilderness, mining, rough country and isolation. As well as that, it was an early convict settlement location in the early stages of Van Diemen's Land.
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swag usually refers to Samples, Wearables and Gifts. These are promotional items or gifts that are given away by companies or organizations. It can also simply be used as a slang term for inexpensive gifts in general.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria in Australia between approximately 1851 and the early 1860s.

During this decade, Victoria produced more than one third of the world's gold output.
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Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonym for the Cinema of the United States.
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Colin Friels

Born September 25 1952 (age 55)
Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland

Spouse(s) Judy Davis (1984-)

Awards

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Monash University

Motto Ancora imparo ("I am still learning")
Established 1958
Type Public
Chancellor Jerry Ellis, Alan Finkel AM (incoming 2008)
Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Larkins, AO
Faculty 7,605^[1]
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West Coast of Tasmania has a significant convict heritage. The use of the West Coast as an outpost to house convicts in isolated penal settlements occurred in the era 1822-1833, and 1846-1847.
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