The Drover's Wives
{{short description|Book by Ryan O'Neill}}
{{italic title}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{use Australian English|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = The Drover's Wives
| image = File:The_Drover's_Wives_cover.jpg
| author = Ryan O'Neill
| isbn = 9781925589290
| publisher = Brio Books
| country = Australia
| pub_date = July 2018
| pages = 304
}}
The Drover's Wives is a collection of short stories by Ryan O'Neill. It comprises 99 reinterpretations of the 1892 short story "The Drover's Wife" by Australian author Henry Lawson.{{cite web | last=Drayton | first=Dave | title=Inside the story: 99 versions of the same tale in The Drover's Wives | website=The Conversation | date=25 February 2025 | url=https://theconversation.com/inside-the-story-99-versions-of-the-same-tale-in-the-drovers-wives-112407 | access-date=17 May 2025}}
O'Neill has dedicated the book to both Lawson and French novelist Raymond Queneau, who was a co-founder of the Oulipo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle) movement in 1960. In The Drover's Wives, O'Neill adopts Queneau's method used in his 1947 book Exercises in Style (French: Exercices de style) which comprises 99 retellings of the same story.
The Drover's Wives was shortlisted for the 2019 Russell Prize and was shortlisted at the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards.{{cite news |title=Russell Prize for Humour Writing 2019 shortlist announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2019/04/18/131900/russell-prize-for-humour-writing-2019-shortlist-announced/ |accessdate=30 April 2019 |publisher=Books + Publishing |date=18 April 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://publishing.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/writing-and-publishing/jinghua-qian/winners-announced-for-the-2019-queensland-literary-awards-259209|title=Winners announced for the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards|last=Qian|first=Jinghua|date=12 November 2019|website=ArtsHub Australia|language=en-au|access-date=2019-11-13|archive-date=10 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310084921/https://publishing.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/writing-and-publishing/jinghua-qian/winners-announced-for-the-2019-queensland-literary-awards-259209|url-status=live}}
References
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Further reading
- {{cite journal |last1=Poacher |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Drover's Wives: 101 retellings of a classic short story |journal=Times Literary Supplement |issue=6096 |date=2020-01-31 |page=36 |language=en}} [https://go-gale-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&retrievalId=f131826a-bf31-4489-8203-cefa34003377&hitCount=1&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA632211993&docType=Book+review&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZNEW-FullText-Exclude-FT&prodId=STND&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA632211993&searchId=R1&userGroupName=wikipedia&inPS=true Wikipedia Library link]
- {{cite journal | last=Webb | first=Jen | title=Jen Webb reviews 'The Drover’s Wives: 99 reinterpretations of Henry Lawson’s Australian Classic' by Ryan O'Neill | website=Australian Book Review| issue=403 | date=27 June 2018 | url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2018/226-august-2018-no-403/4977-jen-webb-reviews-the-drover-s-wives-99-reinterpretations-of-henry-lawson-s-australian-classic-by-ryan-o-neill |url-access=subscription}}