Guy Boothby 
The Race of Life (Annotated) 

• This edition includes the following editor’s introduction: Guy Boothby’s style and literary impact

Originally published in 1906, ‘The Race of Life’ is a rare melodrama by Australian writer Guy Boothby.



‘The Race of Life’ is a stirring tale of love and adventure in the Antipodes. Like Australian bush stories in general, it is rich in local colour and strong in the vernacular, but unlike most of them, it was written by a man whose personal knowledge of the scenes was exact and intimate.

The novel is set in the wilderness of Northern Queensland, where the main incidents of the story occur. This region forms a fitting stage for the actions of the stockmen, bushrangers, gamblers and sundowners whose plots and counterplots to win the mysterious
Moira, the beautiful heroine of the book, make a story of absorbing and thrilling interest.