Week 3

Commonwealth of Thieves
This novel tells the story of Arthur Phillip, who was put in charge of an English voyage to establish a penal colony on the coast of Australia. At this time in England crime was on the rise and the prisons in the country were rapidly being filled to capacity. As the novel begins by introducing the reader to many different characters who are all alike in the sense that they are considered criminals, yet their crimes did not seem to be too severe. Most of these crimes stemmed from the extreme unequal distribution of wealth seen in this region during this time period. Most of the people that were imprisoned at this time, were put there for doing very minor things, it kind of seems like the British wanted many people in their jails so they would have the benefits of free labor which could be utilized on endeavors such as this journey to Australia. In the midst of the American Revolution taking place in North America at his time, the British decide on transport of these prisoners to Australia. They were to settle on Botany Bay off the Western Coast of the continent, as they set out on their voyage. As expected during the journey the crew has to deal with the severe conditions with disease rapidly the crew and poorly stocked supplies.

I thought that Keneally really portrays Phillip in a positive way. Phillip always seemed that he knew, even from the beginning, exactly what the members of his crew needed and the best way that they would succeed. He also seemed like he really was interested in the well being of the aboriginal people, he did not want them to be harmed. When I first began reading this book I thought Phillip would have wanted to colonize these people in the manner, which we have read about in “Discourse on Colonialism”. This was not the case and Philip actually ended up befriending some of the natives. I was surprised that Phillip took Bennelong back to England.

Overall I would have to say that this book was difficult to read. I think that much of this stems from the fact that there is just so much repetition in this book. At times it almost feels like your reading a textbook, mostly due to the high density of material. This was much different than all other novels that I have read in the past. That’s not to say that this was not a great story, it was very interesting to see and read about many of the obstacles that leaders face when they are trying to settle a region, and to establish a colony. This novel touched on many roadblocks that Phillip and his crew eventually would pass to achieve the success they would come to realize. Most of these problems were lack of supplies and scarcity of food, but there were also many diseases, such as small pox, that claimed the lives of many during the course of this story.

My favorite quality of this book was the detailed list of sources that is included at the end of the book. I also found the index to be quite useful, since their was so much going on, it was very convenient to have a quick reference guide of sorts which allowed you to quickly find exactly were a character was introduced or mentioned to help better piece together this story. The long list of primary and secondary sources that Keneally consulted really gives you’re a sense of just how much research and time Keneally dedicated to creating the most accurate and most detailed retelling of the story that he could achieve.