The first in Henry Handel Richardson's trilogy, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney. (From the book blurb) Mahoney's personal history is closely interwoven with the history of the colony of Victoria at the time of the Ballarat Gold Rush. Colonial life, although the source of his prosperity, becomes for Mahoney the prime cause of an incurable dissatisfaction with his lot. The trilogy is continued in The Way Home, and then Ultima Thule.

The second in Henry Handel's trilogy, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney. (From the book blurb) A study of disillusionment. Mahoney, having bought a medical practice on the south coast of England, discovers that his years in the colonies have alienated him from provincial English society. He returns to Australia and prosperity. A second visit to Europe, a 'Grand Tour', is cut short by the failure of his financial affairs, and Mahoney is called abruptly, and finally, to Australia. The trilogy is completed in Ultima Thule.

1929. Ultima Thule is the final volume in Henry Handel Richardson's (Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson) The Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy. It is without question Richardson's most important work. Her brilliant analysis of human inadequacy, of the gulf between the ideal and achievement, and of the complexities of circumstance, environment and human frailty, make her one of Australia's most distinguished novelists. In The Fortunes of Richard Mahony she brings together knowledge of a significant period of Australian history, an understanding of human weakness, and a grasp of the principles and techniques of the best European and Russian writers of the nineteenth century. Ultima Thule opens with Mahony's financial ruin and explores the complete disintegration of his personality. The Australian countryside at its worst takes on almost human shapes of menace and hostility, and Mahony is finally broken as much by the country of his exile as by his own morbid sensitivity.