True History of the Kelly Gang

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

True History of the Kelly Gang is a 2000 novel by Australian author Peter Carey. It retells the Ned Kelly story as a fictional autobiography written by Kelly himself while on the run, with a later narrator adding the ending. The book blends history and invention and should be read as a work of fiction, not a factual history.

Key facts
- First published in Australia in 2000 by the University of Queensland Press.
- The book won the Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2001.
- It is written in a rough, distinctive voice with little punctuation and heavy use of Irish-influenced language.
- The story is divided into thirteen sections, each presented as if it were a part of Kelly’s manuscript, plus a frame ending about his final shootout and death.

Plot in simple terms
- Ned Kelly’s father, John “Red” Kelly, is an Irish convict who dies when Ned is a boy. The family settles in rural Victoria.
- Ned’s mother, Ellen, tries to support the family while moving through difficult relationships. Ned learns about the land and bushranging from the infamous Harry Power.
- Ned is sent to prison for receiving a stolen horse, but after two years he is drawn back to crime when a rival squatter steals his horses.
- A police officer, Constable Alex Fitzpatrick, woos Ned’s sister. Ned shoots Fitzpatrick in self-defense after a threat, and warrants are issued for Ned and his brother Dan.
- Ned, Dan, and friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne go into the hills and become the Kelly Gang. Their mother is jailed in an effort to pressure Ned to surrender.
- The gang ambushes and kills three policemen at Stringybark Creek. They rob banks and share money with helpful local people.
- Ned falls in love with a young Irish woman named Mary Hearne. She becomes pregnant and urges him to tell his life story for their child.
- After two successful bank robberies, Mary uses the money to move to San Francisco with her son and their child; Ned stays in Australia to look after his mother.
- The Kelly Gang is finally cornered in Glenrowan, wearing armor to protect themselves. They take hostages, including a local schoolteacher who betrays them.
- Police surround Glenrowan and a bloody battle follows. Ned is badly wounded and the other gang members are killed. The manuscript survives thanks to the schoolteacher’s escape, and a narrator named S.C. recounts Kelly’s death by hanging.
- Ned’s life becomes a legend in northeastern Victoria, inspiring many stories about him.

Fiction versus history
- Carey adds figures and events that aren’t part of real Ned Kelly history, including a love interest, a daughter, and several fictional groups and details.
- Ned Kelly is not known to have had children or a wife in the historical record.

Reception and adaptations
- The book is highly acclaimed and widely studied as a major English-language novel.
- A film adaptation directed by Justin Kurzel was released in 2020, with George MacKay as Ned Kelly and Russell Crowe as Harry Power.