The Pea-Pickers is a novel by the Australian writer Eve Langley, first published in 1942. It is a first person, semi-autobiographical narrative about two sisters who travel in the 1920s to Gippsland, and other rural areas, to work as agricultural labourers. It shared the 1940 S. H. Prior Memorial Prize (run by The Bulletin) with Kylie Tennant's The Battlers. The Pea-Pickers received much critical acclaim when it was published, but then interest lapsed and, in the next few decades, it received only "sporadic critical attention". It has been discussed briefly in studies of the Australian novel, but by the early 1980s, only Douglas Stewart had done a lengthy analysis of it. However, in 2001 it was re-released by Angus and Robertson in their Classics series. It has been described as "one of the more extraordinary novels of the first half of the twentieth century in terms of pastoral imagery". The book was not written until the 1940s but is based on her diary and other writings of the 1920s. It combines both autobiographical and fictional elements, and transposes some characters from her later life. The main character, Steve, appears in several other works of hers. In an interview in 1964, Langley said about writing the book that it was "like a tapestry that I could embroider rapidly". Plot summary The novel has a thin plot: two sisters, dressed as men and taking men's names, Steve and Blue, decide to work as agricultural labourers in Gippsland, the place their mother has told them about throughout their childhood and with which they feel they have a "spiritual link". The book chronicles their life and work over a few seasons, and particularly describes "the multitude of eccentrics". The book is divided into four parts: Part One: "For the best! For the best!" Steve and Blue leave home in Dandenong and travel to Gippsland, near Bairnsdale, where they work as apple-pickers. Steve meets and falls in love with Kelly. They then go to Rutherglen to look for work pruning vines but aren't successful due to their gender, and return home to Dandenong. This title of this section, Maxwell suggests, "reflects the general mood and optimism of the first section". Part Two: "The Glitter of Celtic Bronze against the Sea" Steve and Blue return to Gippsland where they work, mostly, as pea-pickers. Kelly had not responded to Steve's letters, and in this part she falls