The Commandant: Text Classics
Text Classics
Jessica Anderson
Introduction by Carmen Callil
The Commandant is an unforgettable tale of power, duty and humanity.
He jumped down to the wharf and walked alone out of the torchlight to stand behind Letty. Frances looked from his face to her sister’s, and once again felt the weakening flush of fear. She was too much at the mercy of her company, and was about to discover which of her unpredictable selves would advance to meet these two strangers.
The penal colony of Moreton Bay is under the command of Patrick Logan, a man not afraid of brutal discipline. But his rule is being questioned and the arrival of his sister-in-law Frances will change everything.
andThe Commandant
‘Quietly astonishing: enthralls, entertains and gratifies on every level.’
‘The happiness a consummate novelist bestows upon a reader—the feeling that under no circumstance can you bear not to know what happens next, nor can you bear to come to the end of the tale—this is Jessica Anderson’s great narrative gift. The Commandant was published in England in 1975 when its English publisher put a bodice-ripper jacket on it. Today it can be published in a different way, in a different country, and be seen for the masterpiece it is.’
