Obernewtyn (novel)

Composition

Isobelle Carmody began writing the book when she was fourteen, in 1972. She rewrote and developed it throughout high school and university. After briefly working as a journalist, she left to write full-time. Penguin Books agreed to publish the book when Carmody submitted the manuscript in her early twenties and it was published in 1987. Carmody has said that the character and life experiences of Elspeth reflect her own:

As a girl, I felt myself to be a Misfit. I was the eldest of eight children and I grew up in this tough neighbourhood where there were kids that beat up odd kids like me who read and wrote stories. I longed not to fit in and be like the other kids, but to find people who were like me. And of course like probably every kid, though I did not know that then, I longed to have something important to do. I longed to be special. I think this is the natural result of the powerlessness of children in a world of adults that don’t always seem to be looking after the world all that well.

The author named The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Doctor Dolittle and books about Pippi Longstocking as sources of influence.

Context

Obernewtyn is set in a world recently ravaged by a nuclear holocaust, known to the survivors as "the Great White", later said by the Herders (leaders of the new religious order) to have been sent by Lud (God) to punish humanity. The surviving remote communities attempted to rebuild society, which over time developed into a totalitarian Council, and a religious order, the Herder Faction. Mutations of the mind also began to appear in some of the surviving generations; those discovered are either burnt alive along with the rebels or labelled as "Misfits" and outcasts. The resulting large group of children are placed in orphan homes and used for manual labour.

Voice and setting

The story is told in the first-person through the protagonist, Elspeth Gordie, a teenage girl who has secret mental powers such as telepathy and the ability to communicate with animals. The story begins at Kindraide orphan home, where she and her brother Jes live, before moving briefly through Sutrium, the capital, and the countryside. However the majority of the narrative is set at Obernewtyn, which lies in the northern mountains of the Land, the fictional nation in which the Obernewtyn Chronicles is set.

Plot

Elspeth learns from her premonitions, and her cat Maruman's prophecies, that a keeper from Obernewtyn, a feared institution where Misfits are sent to work, will come to take her there. Soon, when delivering tea to visiting Head Keeper of Obernewtyn, Madam Vega, Elspeth accidentally reveals she is a Misfit, though not to what extent, and is soon dispatched to Obernewtyn. Her first few weeks at Obernewtyn are spent in the kitchen, where she is worked to the bone. The cook’s daughter delights in tormenting her. The favoured Misfit, Ariel, and farm overseer, Rushton, immediately dislike her. Later reassigned to the farm, an encounter with a pair of Misfits named Matthew and Dameon reveals she is not alone in her particular abilities. She also befriends Cameo, a delicate, pretty Misfit of whom Matthew is very fond. Elspeth, plagued by nightmares, begins to feel there is a dark secret underneath their everyday tasks. While working, Elspeth decides to test the range of her telepathic ability, "farseeking", but beyond the boundaries of Obernewtyn, a strange machine, the Zebkrahn, traps her mind. She is only freed by combining her mental strength with another anonymous mind who offers assistance. Asked by Vega to look out for "special" Misfits, her interview reveals the Doctor is a defective simpleton; his "assistant", Alexi, has no interest in Elspeth in his quest to find the "right one" who will lead him to what he desires. Elspeth and Matthew later deduce that tortuous experiments on their kind are occurring, and they resolve to escape. Cameo begins disappearing from her bed at nighttime, and Elspeth fearfully suspects that Cameo is the subject of some of these experiments.

That night, Elspeth sneaks into the Doctor’s office to retrieve a map and compass, but on finding forbidden books and maps from before the Great White, the "Beforetime", she realises they must be searching for something from long ago. She leaves empty-handed. Rosamunde, a fellow orphan from the Kinraide orphan home, arrives at Obernewtyn and coldly informs Elspeth that her brother Jes had discovered he also had mental abilities, but was killed by guards in an escape attempt. Rushton comforts the distraught Elspeth, and asks her why she plagues him. Fearful that someone will soon be after her as well, her group’s escape plans begin in earnest. Elspeth returns a second time to the Doctor’s office, but when Vega, Alexi and Ariel enter, she learns Ariel is part of the Obernewtyn family, and that they are searching for a Misfit to help them find the location of Beforetime weapons. Pre-warned that two Councilmen are coming to fetch her for questioning by the Herders, at nightfall she makes to escape but Rushton stops her. He reveals a secret network of drains which gets her safely to the farms. Once she is safely through the drains after a close shave with Ariel's pack of mad, wild wolves, she finds that the path to the farms has been obscured by a blizzard and gets lost. She nearly dies, but a Misfit named Domick finds her and locks her in the farmhouse to return later to Obernewtyn. Overhearing a conversation between her captors, she discovers they are Rushton's accomplices and were to secretly meet with a rebel group, but Rushton has gone missing. Convincing them that her powers can help find him, she makes her way on foot through the blizzard to the far mountains, with Maruman as her guide.

Inside the cave network she finds a dying Cameo, who tells her the Beforetime weapons Alexi and Vega are searching for caused the Great White, but they do not know this. She also reveals it is Elspeth’s destiny, as the Seeker, to destroy them. After mourning her death, Elspeth overhears that Rushton, imprisoned in the next cavern, is the true heir of Obernewtyn. Suddenly, she is captured by Ariel, who ties her to a table next to the Zebkrahn machine. Elspeth is forced to hold the diaries of Marisa Seraphim, the wife of the founder of Obernewtyn and Alexi's stepmother, and use her abilities to discover what Marisa was thinking when she wrote them to determine the weapons’ location. Still withstanding the torture, Elspeth mentally enters Rushton’s mind and recognises the voice of her earlier rescuer from the Zebkrahn. Rushton gives his mental strength to her to endure the pain inflicted on her by the machine. In her despair at their threats to kill him, her resistance breaks and Marissa’s thoughts reveal the map to be carved into the front doors of Obernewtyn. At this point, the Zebkrahn overheats and bursts into flames. Something in Elspeth’s mind cracks and she uses this new power to kill Vega, who she saw standing over Rushton with a knife. She falls unconscious as Domick and Rushton’s other friends rush in. Alexi is killed, but Ariel flees into the night and is believed to have died in the blizzard. Now known to be the legal master of Obernewtyn, Rushton plans to build it into a secret refuge for Misfits.

Critical

On the whole, Obernewtyn has been positively received. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called it "a promising new series" and stated that Carmody evades stereotyping by imbuing her characters with conflicting interests. The Library Journal stated that it is a "thought-provoking tale of courage and sacrifice".

Lloyd Alexander, an American fantasy author, commented that it is a fantastically imaginative novel. He cited intricate detail, in-depth character development, and skilled use of language as some of the strengths of the work. American Young Adult fantasy writer Tamora Pierce expressed that the novel is "a dream date for [her]", given the novel involves a courageous girl of many talents and animals with "minds of their own".

However some reviewers have criticised aspects of the book. A reviewer writing for Kirkus Reviews said that the novel is "pedestrian and one-dimensional". Victoria Strauss, of SF Site, felt the emotional detachment of Elspeth, despite her loss and grief, robs the novel of some of its impact. John Foster felt Obernewtyn is hard to follow due to the complexities of the language and plot.

Awards and nominations

Obernewtyn won the Marcus Clark Literary Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript, which subsequently saw Carmody receive an Australia Council of the Arts Writer's Grant.

In 1988, Obernewtyn was shortlisted for Book of the Year for Older Readers in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards.

Publication history

Single Book Publications:

Combined Volumes:

Adaptations

The Corrugated Iron Youth Arts Theatre in Darwin, Australia, produced Caroline Heske's stage play adaptation of Obernewtyn, direcled by Jeremy Rice, at the Brown's Mart Theatre from 3 to 7 November 2004. Rice stated that the original novel has "that imaginative streak that suits theatre".