The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds is a 1977 best-selling novel by Colleen McCullough, an Australian author. In 1983 it was adapted as a television mini-series that, during its television run became the second highest rating mini-series of all time behind Roots.

The mini-series starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Mare Winningham and Jean Simmons. It was directed by Daryl Duke.

Set primarily on "Drogheda", a fictional sheep station in the Australian outback, the story focused on the Cleary family, and spanned the years 1920 to 1962.

The book was a number 1 bestseller.

The story starts with the Cleary family, the father Paddy, the wife Fee, and the many children, the most prominent being the eldest son Frank, and the youngest and only daughter Meggie in New Zealand.

They move to Drogheda, where Paddy's sister Mary lives. She hires them to take care of her estate. Mary is the richest person in the area. Ralph, a handsome, ambitious priest stuck in the outback tries to befriend her, to gain her money and to help him rise to the top of the religious heirachy. Ralph takes care of Mary's relatives, and takes a liking to Meggie.

Ralph is the centre of young Meggie's life, and Ralph has never felt so strongly towards a girl other than to Meggie. Meggie is happy, with Ralph and her dear brother Frank. However, Frank's relationship with his father Paddy has never been well. In an argument, Paddy blurts out the truth about Frank. Frank is not Paddy's son. Frank was already conceived when Paddy married her, and Fee had always taken more care and given more attention to Frank than any of her other children. Frank runs away and goes boxing.

With Frank gone, Meggie clings into Ralph. Mary dies, and she leaves all the money in the control of Ralph due to a kind of love she had for him. Ralph treats the Cleary family generously. He pays them generously and makes sure that they are well taken care of. He himself gains the attention of the Church, and is sent away to Sydney.

Before he leaves, Meggie confesses of her love for him. Ralph refuses her because of his position as a priest and he entreats Meggie to marry someone and find a beau. Then he leaves her. Paddy and a few of the Cleary boys died in natural disasters.

Meggie then courts Luke who has recently come to Drogheda. He looks remarkably like Ralph, and Meggie takes a liking into him. He marries her, and takes her away. He works as a sugar cutter, and he leaves Meggie in a poor place to work as a maid. Meggie is lonely and distraught, and she bears a child, Justine. Ralph visits her once during her labour, as she was yelling his name and not Luke's. Ralph wants to say goodbye because he is leaving Australia but Meggie yells and swore at him. He leaves her again.

Meggie is getting weaker and weaker, and the family she is staying with pities her greatly. They send her to a quiet summer resort for rest. Ralph comes back on a holiday to find Meggie. The family tells him where she is. He joins Meggie, and then a revelation comes over him. He loved Meggie more than God, and he was indeed only a Man, no matter how Godlike he had tried to become. They spend a few days together, and he was on his way again. Meggie divorces Luke, because she is now pregnant with Ralph's baby.

She names the child Dane. Fee knows who the father is because of her own experience. Frank is in jail and her heart is in pieces. Meggie's relationship with her mother improves.

As Dane grows up he wants to be a priest. Fee tells Meggie that what she stole from God, she had to give back. Justine wants to be an actress and leaves Australia and seeks her dream. Dane goes to Ralph, who is now a Cardinal, but Ralph does not know that Dane is his own child. He takes great care of him and because of their resemblance, people mistake them as uncle and nephew.

Dane drowns in Greece, whilst a civil war is going on. Meggie needs to find her child. She seeks Ralph's help. He refuses to help right away, but Meggie tells him the truth. Immediately, they fly together to Greece and bring back Dane's body back to Drogheda. Soon after Dane's death, Ralph passes away.

Justine believes that the death of her brother was her fault, and the book ends with her living happily with Rainer, a distinguished German who loved her from the beginning and had the patience to wait for her to recognise his love.

Thorn Bird refers to a kind of bird that searches for thorn trees from the day it is born. Until it finds one, it pierces it into its own heart, and sings the most beautiful song ever heard on earth. Pain is the price to pay for the very best.

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