This issue of the Australasian also includes:
An advertisement for the London Journal.
An advertisement for assorted new books and new editions, including English and American literature, and translations of German (Goethe) and French (M. Guyard de Berville) literature, available from 'Samuel Mullen, Bookseller, 55 Collins-street east'.
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 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.
The Australasian's review of The Guardian Angel concludes: 'With all its faults of construction, the Guardian Angel must be pronounced the best of all its author's productions, and we can heartily recommend it to our readers as a genuine book – one of those which the judicious selector buys as well as reads.'
An advertisement for the Royal Princess Theatre production of John Maddison Morton's The Pasha of Pimlico and Watts Phillips's Nobody's Child on 1 February 1868.
Among the subjects covered in 'Our Letter Home' is a round-up of recent entertainments. The Australasian considers the 'two principal successes during the month [of January] in the way of amusements have been the readings of Mr. Montgomery at St. George's-hall, and the Japanese performances at the Princess's'. The 'pecuniary results' of the former are said to be 'utterly beyond anything of the kind that ever occurred before in this colony'. In Ballarat, for instance, Montgomery gave three readings and received £200.
The column also notes performances and management arrangements at the Royal Victoria Theatre and the Duke of Edinburgh (previously the Haymarket) Theatre.
An extensive review of the production of Verdi's Ballo in Maschera at the Duke of Edinburgh Theatre, followed by a detailed commentary on the entertainments at the Theatre Royal. Jaques focuses his attention on the production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth and commends the actors – in particular James R. Anderson – for their performances.
