"...he was so horribly unhuman, that one shuddered to think that tender women and fair children must, of necessity, confess to fellowship of kind with such a monster." Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) by Marcus Clarke tells the story of Richard Devine, a young aristocrat, disowned by his father and wrongfully convicted of a crime, which commands him to change his name to Rufus Dawes. To receive the punishment of the crime, he arrives at Van Diemen's Land, a penal colony of Australia. As a criminal, he is treated inhumanly and cruelly in the colony, and he has to endure endless suffering. However, Dawes remains adamant to clear his name despite all the struggles.