On 7 May 1892 a small group of middle-class men formed a reading circle in New Town, an old and prestigious suburb immediately to the north of Hobart. Ostensibly formed as part of the Australasian Home Reading Union (AHRU), the circle found that affiliation too constricting and broke away in November 1894 to run its meetings in a way more attuned to the temperament and interests of its members. A minute book of meetings to 24 March 1896 and some papers presented at the meetings, not all containing the author’s name or an identifying
date, have survived to give a sense of how this intellectual coterie approached the leading books and subjects of the day. What occurred at these lively, intelligent and thoughtful meetings forms the substance of this article, which broadens our
knowledge about reading circles in Australia and what the educated elite thought were books and subjects worthy of discussion and debate. As the dominating member of the circle, F. J. Young, noted, books offered “those ideas of morality
and the beautiful by which, often unknown to themselves, men are guided.” Of the many books and subjects discussed by the group, one notable absence is work by Australian writers and very little was said about women.' (Author's introduction)
