The Big Season

novel by Gee

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July 16, 2026

Quick Summary

The Big Season is a 1962 novel by New Zealand author Maurice Gee. The novel is set in a small-town New Zealand community and focuses on the local obsession with rugby. Gee's adult fiction often explores the complexities of relationships within the context of personal limitations and societal expectations.1

The term "bigs" can refer to the highest level of a field of endeavor, such as in politics or sports.2

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Maurice Gee
Early works and Plumb trilogy
His first novel, The Big Season (1962), about the goings-on in a community obsessed with rugby, and his short-story collection A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1975), are set in this milieu. The novel In My Father’s Den (1972; film 2004) explores New Zealand social mores by way of the…
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His first novel, The Big Season (1962), about the goings-on in a community obsessed with rugby, and his short-story collection A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1975), are set in this milieu. The novel In My Father’s Den (1972; film 2004) explores New Zealand social mores by way of the…
Read More