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The Thorn Birds
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The Thorn Birds (1977) (edit title/settings)

by Colleen McCullough (Author) (edit contributors)

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Powered by the dreams and struggles of three generations, THE THORN BIRDS is the epic saga of a family rooted in the Australian sheep country. At the story's heart is the love of Meggie Cleary, who can never possess the man she desperately adores, and Ralph de Bricassart, who rises from parish... read more

Summary edit see section history

The epic begins with Meghann "Meggie" Cleary, a four-year-old girl living in New Zealand in the early twentieth century, the only daughter of Paddy, an Irish farm labourer, and Fee, his harassed but aristocratic-looking wife. Although Meggie is a beautiful child with curly red-gold hair, she... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The epic begins with Meghann "Meggie" Cleary, a four-year-old girl living in New Zealand in the early twentieth century, the only daughter of Paddy, an Irish farm labourer, and Fee, his harassed but aristocratic-looking wife. Although Meggie is a beautiful child with curly red-gold hair, she receives little coddling and must struggle to hold her own against her numerous older brothers. Of these brothers, her favourite is the eldest, Frank, a rebellious young man who is unwillingly preparing himself for the blacksmith's trade. He is much shorter than his brothers, but very strong; also, unlike the other Clearys, he has black hair and eyes.

Paddy is poor, but has a wealthy sister, Mary Carson, who lives in Australia on an enormous sheep station called Drogheda. One day, Paddy receives a letter from Mary offering him a job on her estate. He accepts, and the whole family moves to the Outback.

Here Meggie meets Father Ralph de Bricassart, a young, capable, and ambitious priest who, as punishment for insulting a bishop, has been relegated to a remote parish in the town of Gillanbone, near Drogheda. Ralph has befriended Mary, hoping a hefty enough bequest from her to the Catholic church might liberate him from his exile. Ralph is strikingly handsome; "a beautiful man"; and Mary, who doesn't bother to conceal her desire for him, often goes to great lengths to see if he can be induced to break his vows. Ralph blandly shrugs off these attentions and continues his visits. Meanwhile, he cares for all the Clearys and soon learns to cherish beautiful but forlorn little Meggie. Meggie, in return, makes Ralph the centre of her life.

Frank's relationship with his father, Paddy, has never been peaceful. The two vie for Fee's attention, and Frank resents the many pregnancies Paddy makes her endure. One day, after Fee, now in her forties, reveals she is again pregnant, the two men quarrel violently and Paddy blurts out the truth about Frank: He is not Paddy's son. Long ago, Fee had been the adored only daughter of a prominent citizen. Then, she had an affair with a married politician, and the result — Frank — was already eighteen-months-old when her mortified father married her off to Paddy. Because he resembles her lost love, Fee has always loved Frank more than her other children. To the sorrow of Meggie and Fee, when Frank learns that Paddy is not his father, he runs away to become a boxer. Fee later gives birth to twin boys, James and Patrick (Jims and Patsy), but shows little interest in them. Shortly afterward, Meggie's beloved little brother, Hal, dies.

With Frank gone and Hal dead, Meggie clings to Ralph more than ever. This goes largely unnoticed because Ralph has now been her mentor for several years; however, as she ripens into womanhood, some begin to question their close relationship, including Ralph and Meggie themselves. Mary Carson has also noticed their changing relationship, and from motives of jealousy mingled with Machiavellian cruelty, she devises a plan to separate Ralph from Meggie by tempting him with his heart's desire: a high place in the Church hierarchy. Although her will of record leaves the bulk of her estate to Paddy, she quietly writes a new one, making the Roman Catholic Church the main beneficiary and Ralph the executor.

In the new will, the true magnitude of Mary's wealth is finally revealed. Drogheda is not the centre of her fortune as Ralph and Paddy have long believed but is merely a "hobby", a diversion from her true financial interests. Mary's wealth is derived from a vast multi-national financial empire worth over thirteen million Pounds (about AU$200 million in modern terms). The sheer size of Mary's bequest will virtually guarantee Ralph's rapid rise in the church. She also makes sure that after she dies only Ralph, at first, will know of the new will — forcing him to choose between Meggie and his own ambition. She also provides for her disinherited brother, promising him and all his descendants a home on Drogheda as long as they wish.

At Mary's seventy-second birthday party, Ralph goes to great lengths to avoid Meggie, now seventeen and dressed in a beautiful rose-pink evening gown; later, he explains that others might not see his attention as innocent. Mary dies in the night. Ralph duly learns of the new will. He sees at once the subtle genius of Mary's plan and, although he weeps and calls her "a disgusting old spider" he takes the new will to her lawyer without delay. The lawyer, scandalised, urges Ralph to destroy the will, but to no avail. The bequest of thirteen million pounds works its expected magic, and Ralph soon leaves to begin his rapid advance in the Church.

Before he leaves, Meggie confesses her love for him; after the birthday party, Ralph finds her crying in the family cemetery and they share a passionate kiss, but Ralph refuses her because of his duties as a priest and begs Meggie to find someone to love and marry.

The Clearys learn that Frank has been convicted of murder after killing someone in a fight. He spends three decades in prison.

Paddy and his son Stuart are killed; Paddy dies in a lightning fire, and Stu is killed by a wild boar shortly after finding his father's body. Meanwhile, Ralph, unaware of Paddy and Stu's deaths, is on his way to Drogheda and suffers minor injuries when his plane bogs in the mud. As Meggie tends his wounds, she tries to seduce him and is rebuffed. Ralph remains at Drogheda only long enough to conduct the funerals.

Three years later, a new ranch worker named Luke O'Neill begins to court Meggie. Although his motives are more mercenary than romantic, she marries him because he looks a little bit like Ralph, but mainly because he is not Catholic and wants little to do with religion-her own way of getting back at Ralph. She soon realises her mistake. After a brief honeymoon, Luke, a skinflint who regards women as sex objects and prefers the company of men, finds Meggie a live-in job with a kindly couple, the Muellers, and leaves to join a gang of itinerant sugarcane cutters in North Queensland. Before he leaves, he appropriates all Meggie's savings and arranges to have her wages paid directly to him. He tells her he's saving money to buy a homestead; however, he quickly becomes obsessed with the competitive toil of cane-cutting and has no real intention of giving it up. Hoping to change Luke's ambition and settle him down, Meggie purposely becomes pregnant and bears Luke a red-haired daughter, Justine. The new baby, however, makes little impression on Luke.

Father Ralph visits Meggie during her difficult labour; he has come to say goodbye, as he is leaving Australia for Rome. He sees Meggie's unhappiness for himself, and pities her. Justine proves to be a fractious baby, so the Muellers send Meggie to an isolated island resort for a rest. Father Ralph returns to Australia, learns of Meggie's whereabouts from Anne Mueller, and joins her for several days. There, at last, the lovers consummate their passion, and Ralph realises that despite his ambition to be the perfect priest, his desire for Meggie makes him a man like other men. Father Ralph returns to the Church and Meggie, pregnant with Ralph's child, decides to separate from Luke. She spends one last night with him to disguise the unborn baby's scandalous parentage; the next morning, she tells Luke what she really thinks of him, and returns to Drogheda, leaving him to his cane-cutting.

Back home, she gives birth to a beautiful boy whom she names Dane. Fee, who has had experience in such matters, notices Dane's resemblance to Ralph as soon as he is born. The relationship between Meggie and Fee takes a turn for the better. Justine grows into an independent, keenly intelligent girl who loves her brother dearly; however, she has little use for anyone else, and calmly rebuffs Meggie's overtures of motherly affection.

Eventually, Frank is released from prison and he also returns to Drogheda; his spirit, however, is broken, and all his restless ambition is gone. None of Meggie's other brothers ever marry, and Drogheda gradually becomes a place filled with old people.

Ralph visits Drogheda after a long absence and meets Dane for the first time; and although he finds himself strangely drawn to the boy, he fails to recognise that they are father and son. Dane grows up and decides, to Meggie's dismay, to become a priest. Fee tells Meggie that what she stole from God she must now give back. Justine, meanwhile, decides to become an actress and leaves Australia to seek her dream in England. Ralph, now a Cardinal, becomes a mentor to Dane, but still blinds himself to the fact that the young man is his own son. Dane is also unaware of their true relationship. Ralph takes great care of him, and because of their resemblance people mistake them for uncle and nephew. Ralph and Dane encourage the rumour. Justine and her brother remain close, although he is often shocked at her sexual adventures and free-wheeling lifestyle. She befriends Rainer Hartheim, a German politician who is a great friend of both Dane and Ralph's-- unbeknownst to her, he falls deeply in love with her. Their friendship becomes the most important in her life, and is on the verge of becoming something more when tragedy strikes.

Dane vacations in Greece while a civil war is underway. While there, he goes swimming one day and, after rescuing two women from a dangerous current, suddenly dies from a heart attack. Meggie, desperate to find his body, seeks Ralph's help. When he refuses, she reveals her trump card: Dane is Ralph's son. Ralph, now as grief-stricken as Meggie, flies with her to Greece; together, they bring their son's body back to Drogheda. Ralph dies in Meggie's arms after the funeral.

Guilt-ridden because she had refused to accompany her brother to Greece as he'd asked, Justine breaks off all communications with Rainer and falls into a depressed, hum-drum existence. Eventually, they renew their acquaintance on strictly platonic terms, until Rainer visits Drogheda alone in order to urge Meggie to help him pursue Justine's hand in marriage.

Justine, now the sole surviving grandchild of Fee and Paddy Cleary, finally accepts her true feelings for Rainer. They marry, but have no plans to live on Drogheda.

The book's title refers to a mythical bird that searches for thorn trees from the day it is hatched. When it finds the perfect thorn, it impales itself, and sings the most beautiful song ever heard as it dies.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles.”
  • “"Each of us has something within us which won't be denied, even if it makes us scream aloud to die. We are what we are, that's all. Like the old Celtic legend of the bird with the thorn in it's breast, singing its heart out and dying. Because it has to, it's driven to. We can know what we do wrong even before we do it, but self-knowledge can't affect or change the outcome, can it? Everyone singing his own little song, convinced it's the most wonderful song the world has ever heard. Don't you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it."”
    Meggie
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Like the old Celtic legend of the bird with the thorn in its breast, singing its heart out and dying. Because it has to, it’s driven to. We can know what we do wrong even before we do it, but self-knowledge can’t affect or change the outcome, can it? Everyone singing his own little song, convinced it’s the most wonderful song the world has ever heard. Don’t you see? We create our own thorns, and never stop to count the cost. All we can do is suffer the pain, and tell ourselves it was well worth it.”
    Highlighted by 48 Kindle customers
  • The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follow an immunatable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thron enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.
    Highlighted by 37 Kindle customers
  • For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain…. Or so says the legend.
    Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers
  • “Perfection in anything,” she said, “is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection.”
    Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers
  • The Greeks say it’s a sin against the gods to love something beyond all reason. And do you remember that they say when someone is loved so, the Gods become jealous, and strike the object down in the very fullness of its flower? There’s a lesson in it, Meggie. It’s profane to love too much.”
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • “We all have contempt for whatever there’s too many of. Out here it’s sheep, but in the city it’s people.”
    Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers
  • She was one of those people whose feelings are so intense they become unbearable, unlivable, and her lesson had been a harsh one. For almost twenty-five years she had been crushing emotion out of existence, and she was convinced that in the end persistence would succeed.
    Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers
  • He was nearly sixteen years old, where Bob was barely eleven, Jack ten, Hughie nine, Stuart five and little Meggie three.
    Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers
  • Perhaps that’s what Hell is, a long term in earth-bound bondage. Perhaps we suffer our hells in living….
    Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers
  • And gradually his memory slipped a little, as memories do, even those with so much love attached to them; as if there is an unconscious healing process within the mind which mends up in spite of our desperate determination never to forget.
    Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers
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First Sentence edit see section history

On December 8th,1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday.

Table of Contents edit see section history

One 1915-1917 Meggie
Two 1921-1928 Ralph
Three 1929-1932 Paddy
Four 1933-1938 Luke
Five 1938-1953 Fee
Six 1954-1965 Dane
Seven 1965-1969 Justine

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Books to Read in 2011. (community list)
This is book 14 of 211 in Hit : biblioteka moderne literature (Znanje, Zagreb). (publisher series)
This is book 98 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 2 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels In 1977. (authoritative list)
This is book 174 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This book is in Zlatko Crnković vam predstavlja (Algoritam, Zagreb). (publisher series)
This is book 64 of 82 in BBC "Big Read" Top 100 Novels. (authoritative list)
This is book 64 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Colleen McCullough (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Nikola Kršić (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Harper & Row
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 1977
ISBN: 0060129565
Page Count: 560

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PR9619.3.M32 T5 1977
  • Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Sexual Content

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

  • The Thorn Birds (IMDb): This 1983 TV mini series covers 60 years in the lives of the Cleary family, brought from New Zealand to Australia to run their aunt Mary Carson's ranch. The story centers on their daughter, Meggie, and her love for the family's priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart. It won 4 Golden Globes and had another 10 wins & 17 nominations throughout the industry.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
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  • My Brilliant Career
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