Foster's most ambitious novel The Glade within the Grove is a “Saga” or “an epic-like narrative” (xxxiv). It begins conventionally, in medias res, in the midst of things, in 1968, the year of international revolutionary activity, before backtracking to the beginning, the Big Bang, the moment of the universe's creation. It is mythic, dealing with the gods and heroes of western culture. In particular, it defines the Australian ethos. In “My Blue Heaven”, the essay which anticipates the Glade, Foster insists “our flora, our landscape, are unique, and so are we” (68). He exhorts Australians to love this country and its indigenous daemon, specifically tree spirits. The Glade's mythic function is related to its epic form. The transmission of myth, and thus a culture's retention of knowledge of itself, entails an act of memory. “Memory...
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Citation: Shaw, Narelle. "The Glade within the Grove". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 May 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=784, accessed 12 February 2026.]
