Cirrus@Austlit

An advertisement for a volume of Robert Burns's poetical works, available from George Robertson, 69 Elizabeth Street Melbourne.

An advertisement for St Paul's Magazine, 'a new monthly magazine of fiction, art and literature, edited by Anthony Trollope and illustrated by J. E. Millais.

An advertisement for J. Oswald Dykes's collection of essays, The Written Word, and Other Essays, published in Melbourne by Samuel Mullen in 1868.

An advertisement for J. E. Neild's novella A Bird in a Golden Cage.

An advertisement for the London Journal.

An advertisement for unspecified volumes of works by William Shakespeare, Robert Burns, Lord Byron and Henry Longfellow, available from Charles Muskett, 78 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

An advertisement for the published collection of newspaper correspondence, Was Hamlet Mad?: Being a Series of Critiques on the Acting of the Late Walter Montgomery, available from the publisher and bookseller H. T. Dwight.

A collection of short items, largely derived from international newspapers, concerning happenings in the worlds of literature and art. Events mentioned include:

• the publication by Sir Samuel Baker of a new work entitled The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia and Sword Hunters of the Hamran Arabs
• developments in photographic techniques
• the extinction of copyright in the works of 'Schiller and Goethe, Jean Paul Wieland, Herder, and every German author who died before the 9th of November 1837'
• 'a sensational description of the death of Miss Avonia Jones, the widow of poor G. V. Brooke
• the 'decoration' of some French journalists by Emperor Francis Joseph
• heightened expectation over the impending publication of Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861: To Which Are Prefixed and Added Extracts from the Same Journal Giving an Account of Earlier Visits to Scotland and Tours in England and Ireland, and Yachting Excursions
• the death of the pseudonymous 'Peter Parley' (said to be William Martin)
• the distribution of books to Japan by US publisher G. P. Putnam and Son
• the completion of Richard Morris's Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
• a new volume of Thackeray's work, published by Smith, Elder & Co
• and various other minor publications

An overview of news from England including a paragraph on 'testimoninals and dinners' for 'our literary men', namely Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens

An announcement that the Australasian will be begin serialising Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins's No Thoroughfare on 25 January 1868, 'the proprietors of this journal having purchased the right of republishing the work in Australia'.

'Q' deliberates on various political and social matters relating to the colony of Victoria and to Melbourne in particular.

The Australasian has pleasure in 'informing our readers that next week we shall commence the publication of a the new story written by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins for the Christmas number of All the Year Round. By an arrangement with the English publishers, early copies have been sent to this journal.'

The column also notes that Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle has now been incorporated with the Australasian.

Further 'Topics of the Week' in this column are largely of a political nature.

Jaques writes at length on the operas being performed in Melbourne before turning his attention to the theatre. Jacques briefly notes the productions of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Pizarro and William Akhurst's Tom Tom the Piper's Son, and Mary Mary Quite Contrary; or, Harlequin Piggy Wiggy, and the Good Child's History of England. He then discusses the accomplishments of the Japanese acrobatic troupe, and the literary readings delivered by Walter Montgomery.

Lastly, Jaques comments on progress in establishing a 'Dramatic College' in Melbourne with contributions towards the fund coming from 'the Galatea amateurs', George Selth Coppin, and the proceeds of readings by G. V. Brooke.