The Anthology Of Colonial Australian Adventure Fiction

Description

Marauding bushrangers, lost explorers, mad shepherds, new chums and mounted troopers: these are some of the characters who populate the often perilous world of colonial Australian adventure fiction. Squatters defend their hard-earned properties from attack, while floods and other natural disasters threaten to wipe any trace of settlement away. Colonial Australian adventure fiction takes its characters on a journey into remote and unfamiliar territory, often in pursuit of wealth and well-being. But these journeys are invariably fraught with danger, and everything comes at a price. This anthology collects the best examples of colonial Australian adventure fiction, with stories by Ernest Favenc, Louis Becke, Rosa Praed, Guy Boothby, and many others.

Author description

Ken Gelder is Professor of English at the University of Melbourne. His co-authored books Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation (1998) and After the Celebration: Australian Fiction 1989-2007 (2009) are both published by MUP. Rachael Weaver is a Senior Research Fellow in English at the University of Melbourne. She is author of The Criminal of the Century.