Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock novel cover
Author	Joan Lindsay
Country	Australia
Language	English
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	F. W. Cheshire
Publication date	1967
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
ISBN	NA & reissue ISBN 0-670-81828-3 (1987 Viking ed.)

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. She wrote it in one day^{[citation needed]} at her home Mulberry Hill in Baxter, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was released in paperback by Penguin in 1970. Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film , and adaptation of the novel of the same name. ... Image File history File links Picnic_at_Haning_Rock_(book). ... Joan Lindsay (born Joan aBeckett Weigall) (November 16, 1896 - December 23, 1984) was an Australian author. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A historical novel a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN redirects here. ... Joan Lindsay (born Joan aBeckett Weigall) (November 16, 1896 - December 23, 1984) was an Australian author. ... Baxter is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. ... A beach on the Mornington Peninsula A beach on the Mornington Peninsula A beach on the Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Western Port Bay and Bass Strait. ... See also: 1966 in literature, other events of 1967, 1968 in literature, list of years in literature. ... It has been suggested that Penguin Modern Poets, Penguin Great Ideas be merged into this article or section. ...

Plot summary

Picnic at Hanging Rock is about a trip by a party of girls from an exclusive private school, who travel to Hanging Rock in Victoria's Mount Macedon area for a picnic on St. Valentine's Day, 1900. The excursion ends in tragedy when three girls and a teacher mysteriously vanish after climbing the rock. Only one girl is ever seen again; no reason for their disappearance is ever given, and the one girl who returned had apparently fallen and hit her head, according to a doctor who examined her, and has no memory of what had happened to the others. Hanging Rock (originally called Mount Diogenes) is a volcanic formation of solvsbergite in Victorias Mt. ... VIC redirects here. ... Mount Macedon is a small town located 64 kilometres (40 mi) northwest of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. ... St. ... Äž: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ...

The mystery

The unsolvable mystery of the disappearances was arguably the key to the success of both the book and the subsequent film. This aroused enough lasting public interest that in 1980, a book of hypothetical solutions (by Yvonne Rosseau) was published, called The Murders at Hanging Rock^[1].

In fact, Lindsay's original draft included a final chapter in which the mystery was resolved. At her editor's suggestion, Lindsay removed it prior to publication. Chapter Eighteen, as it is known, was not widely known until it was published posthumously in 1987 as The Secret of Hanging Rock by Angus & Robertson Publishing.^[2] The Secret of Hanging Rock is a previously unpublished chapter of Joan Lindsays 1967 book Picnic at Hanging Rock and contains the solution to the mystery in that book. ...

The novel is written in the form of a false document, implying that it is based on a true story and even begins and ends with a pseudo-historical prologue and epilogue, adding to the overall mystery-feel. However, while Hanging Rock is a real geological feature near Mt Macedon, the story is entirely fictional. Lindsay has done little to dispel the myth that the story is based on truth, in many interviews either refusing to confirm it was entirely fiction, or hinting that parts of the book were fictitious, and others were not. 14 February 1900 was however actually a Wednesday, not a Saturday as depicted in the story. A false document is a form of verisimilitude that attempts to create in the reader (viewer, audience etc) a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected suspension of disbelief. ... is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Äž: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ...

14 February 1922 was also the day of Joan Lindsay's wedding in London to the art historian Sir Daryl Lindsay.^{[citation needed]}

Appleyard College was to some extent based on Clyde Girl's Grammar School at East St Kilda, Melbourne, which Joan Lindsay attended as a day-girl while in her teens. Incidentally, this school was transferred to the town of Woodend, Victoria, in the immediate vicinity of Hanging Rock in 1919.^{[citation needed]}

Film

Main article: Picnic at Hanging Rock (film)

In 1973, it was optioned as a film by producer Patricia Lovell, with Peter Weir as director. The film version of Picnic at Hanging Rock premiered at the Hindley Cinema Complex in Adelaide on 8 August 1975. It became the first film of the Australian New Wave, and is arguably Australia's first international hit film. ^[3] Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film , and adaptation of the novel of the same name. ... In the film industry, an option is a contractual agreement between a movie studio, a production company, or a producer (henceforth called the producer) and a writer, in which the producer obtains the right to buy a screenplay from the writer, before a certain date. ... A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Peter Lindsay Weir (born August 21, 1944) is an Australian film director. ... Director Herbert Brenon with actress Alla Nazimova on the set of War Brides, 1916 A director is a person who directs the making of a film. ... For other uses, see Adelaide (disambiguation). ... is the 220th day of the year (221st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A resergence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema culture that started in the late 1970s and lasted until the late 1980s. ...

Stage

Picnic at Hanging Rock was adapted by playwright Laura Annawyn Shamas in 1987 and published by Dramatic Publishing Company. Subsequently, it has had many productions in the U.S., Canada, and Australia; it was last produced in Jan. 2008 by Dawson College, Montréal, Canada.

A stage musical version has been created by Robert Johns (adapter) and Brian Spence (composer). It premiered at Chichester's Minerva Theatre in West Sussex.^[4]

References

See also

• Paranormal vanishing
• Hanging Rock, Victoria

Paranormal vanishing is the expression for the unexplainable disappearance of things, animals or human beings without a trace. ... Hanging Rock (originally called Mount Diogenes) is a volcanic formation of solvsbergite in Victorias Mt. ...

External links

• Official website of Hanging Rock (Mt Diogenes) in Australia.
• Criterion Collection essay by Vincent Canby
• Exhaustive and informative library of information about the book and * film.
• Simply Australia interview with cast