Cirrus@Austlit

An advertisement for a 20-page publication listing all new books for sale (from George Robertson's January 1868 Monthly Book Circular).

An advertisement for new Australian publications, 'just published by George Robertson'.

An advertisement for various international works from London publisher Cassell, Petter and Galpin, available from George Robertson, 'sole agent for the Australian colonies'.

An advertisement for 'recent novels now landing by George Robertson'.

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 London monthly The Young Ladies' Journal. The advertisement states that the magazine 'contains suitable reading for families, ... interesting to everybody at home and abroad'.

An advertisement for the London Journal.

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.

An advertisement for Charles Dickens and Wilke Collins's No Thoroughfare, 'complete, 3s., posted. Charlwood, 7 Bourke-street'.

An advertisement for Punch's Almanack, 1868, available from Charlwood and Son, booksellers, 7 Bourke-street, Melbourne.

(It is not clear whether this advertisement is for the London or Melbourne Punch's Almanack.)

An essay of the apparent unwillingness of young women (and some young men) to commit to matrimony.

Q. ponders various aspects of the current election campaigns, and also notes that the Colonial Monthly: An Australian Magazine has changed hands and 'will be brought out next month in a enlarged form, under new editorship'. He then turns his attention to the theatres. Q. questions the proliferation of theatre offerings in Melbourne and repeats a story told by the French writer Pierre Véron about the enormous workload of theatre critics.

Jaques reviews the Theatre Royal production of Rob Roy starring James R. Anderson.

He then notes that 'a larcenous person, who signs himself "Bashi Bazouk," has been pilfering an article of mine and sending it to the Musical World, a dramatic and musical publication of some influence and standing in London. Not content with stealing my article, he has adopted my motto also, and to complicate the affair still more, the Herald of last Saturday reprinted the paper, and complimented the author by declaring it to be "excellent". (The item in question was originally published in the Australasian on 7 July 1866: 433.)

Finally, Jaques reviews the operas performed at the Duke of Edinburgh (aka Haymarket) Theatre, and notes the closure at the Theatre Royal of The Woman in Mauve after a one week trial (it was 'altogether too good for an average audience') and of Black-Eyed Susan. The Woman in Mauve has been replaced by The Old Chateau and Black-Eyed Susan by another Burnand burlesque, Mary Turner; Or, The Wicious Willin and Wictorious Wirtue!.

A round-up of theatrical news from England, Scotland and the USA (chiefly San Francisco), noting connections with Australia.

A table displaying the number of visitors to the Melbourne Public Library and the Museum of Art, from January to December 1867. Total visitors to the Library numbered 197, 525 and to the Museum, 79, 251.