Richard Flanagan: Wanting

Whether Ellen Ternan had a child to Dickens, as Dickens’ daughter Katy believed, or what Sir John’s feelings were towards Mathinna—if he had any at all—appear to be knowledge now irrecoverable. I have seen no evidence that Mathinna was beaten by the Catechist at Wybalenna, but it is known that other Aboriginal girls were, and one, Fanny Cochrane Smith, did attempt to burn down the Catechist’s house. Mathinna was found drowned in a puddle. There is no record of why or how she drowned.

Although the catastrophe of colonisation led many at the time, both black and white, to believe the Tasmanian Aborigines would die out—a terrible anguish which I have tried to mirror in my novel—they did not. Nor were they absent from the subsequent unfolding of Tasmanian history. Today, around 16,000 Tasmanians identify as Aborigines.

The stories of Mathinna and Dickens, with their odd but undeniable connection, suggested to me a meditation on desire—the cost of its denial, the centrality and force of its power in human affairs. That, and not history, is the true subject of Wanting .

In writing this novel, I have on occasion made free use of sentences and phrases from Dickens’ own work. Those who wish to know more about the historical truth of the characters mentioned can find biographical notes, along with a list of the sources I consulted, at www.richardflanaganwanting.com.au.

Finally, my thanks to Nikki Christer, Julian Welch, Deborah Rogers, Joyce Purtscher and Greg Lehman.

“In confident, expert hands, fiction can liberate the past… Richard Flanagan is an exemplary case in point. [A] dense and fascinating novel.”

“Flanagan’s prose grasps the jugular of history… A startling meditation on the tragic cost of emotional repression and the physical violence and psychic disfigurement to which the constraint of self-expression give rise.”

“A compelling novel about love and loss.”

“A beautifully constructed fugue on desire and its denial, on the protean forms assumed by passionate natures wrestling with 19th century dictates of reason and duty.”

“As usual, Flanagan is brilliant at re-creating this ‘weird land predating time, with its vulgar rainbow colours, its vile, huge forests and bizarre animals that seemed to have been lost since Adam’s exile.’”

“The novel is stylishly, even beautifully written, and one stops to savour many a well-turned phrase.”

“This is the best novel I have read this year or expect to read for several more…Flanagan’s storytelling puts the heart back into history. It is infused with a massive strength of feeling, with anger and compassion.”

“In Wanting , Richard Flanagan has written an exquisite, profoundly moving, intricately structured meditation about the desire for human connection in its many forms.”

“A novel of singular beauty. Flanagan’s virtuoso handling of historical fact and storytelling, combined with his understanding of human nature, confirms that in works such as this, fiction achieves high art.”

“Flanagan sets his novel in the wilds of nineteenth-century Tasmania and evokes its inhabitants with exquisite precision…Flanagan forges…an entirely unified meditation on desire, ‘the cost of its denial, the centrality and force of its power in human affairs.’”

“Flanagan is a beautiful writer and Wanting is a beautiful and considered addition to his oeuvre.”

“Passionate and eloquent.”

“Complex and riveting fiction… An ingenious, thoughtful and potent demonstration of this assured author’s imaginative versatility.”

“Astounding… A stunning book… Wanting deserves the highest accolades.”

“Flanagan’s prose is beautifully crafted, at once elegant and astonishing… Highly recommended.”

“Flanagan’s control of his material is awe-inspiring, and he writes beautifully to boot.”

“The novel boasts many symmetries and ironies, which are the stuff of poetry rather than history.”

“[Flanagan’s] depiction of desire’s effects is sublime.”

“Moving seamlessly through time, across two continents and between three storylines, Wanting is a marvel of precision and cohesion.”

“ Wanting is a novel you never want to end. As a reader, I can think of no greater accolade.”

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The Unknown Terrorist

Copyright © 2008 by Richard Flanagan.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © JUNE 2010

ISBN: 978-1-443-40057-2

Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Originally published in Australia in 2008 as a Knopf book, published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd.

First published in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd in an original trade paperback edition: 2009.

This Harper Perennial trade paperback edition: 2010

Epigraph from Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, published by Vintage.

Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Flanagan, Richard, 1961–

Wanting / Richard Flanagan.

I. Title.

PR9619.3.F53W35 2010 823’.914 C2010-900801-4