"The Guardian: a Tale by an Australian, is the first novel published in mainland Australia, and the first by a woman. Part Gothic, part comic, it was set in England and Ireland, with only marginal references to Australia."
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"The Guardian is a long, involved and sensational story set among provincial society in south-west Ireland and in England. Told partly in the form of letters between two girls who had been friends at school, it begins as an unremarkable romance but develop into a melodramatic story culminating in a tragedy involving incest. The inventiveness of the plot, and what would have been regarded at the time as its sensational aspects, combine to make it an interesting work and it is easy to imagine that the novel would have been popular when it was released.
New South Wales is mentioned several times but always in a derogatory way, as a place where life is uncivilised and the people stupid."
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