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y separately published work icon The Guardian : A Tale single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1838... 1838 The Guardian : A Tale
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

"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." 

Source.

"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."

Source.

Adaptations

y separately published work icon A [[Non]] Guardian Age Mez Breeze , Australia : if:book Australia , 2015 9691209 2015 single work prose

A digital 're-mix' of a melodramatic Gothic novel, The Guardian, published in Australian in 1838.

Notes

  • BAL author stated as: An Australian
  • First novel printed and published on the Australian mainland (Henry Savery's "Quinton Servinton" was published in 1830 in Hobart Town).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

The Gothic Trail : The Guardian's Place in Australian Gothic Tradition Gillian Polack , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 114 2018; (p. 41-45)
The Guardian : A Tale by an Australian Gillian Polack , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 112 2018; (p. 33-37)
Rumours of My Death Simon Groth , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Writing Queensland , March - May no. 248 2015; (p. 20)
Gothic Influences to the First Novels Gerry Turcotte , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Peripheral Fear : Transformations of the Gothic in Canadian and Australian Fiction 2009; (p. 69-103)
Anna Maria Bunn and The Guardian Patricia Clarke , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 73 2007; (p. 18-21)
Anna Maria Bunn and The Guardian Patricia Clarke , 2007 single work biography
— Appears in: Margin , November no. 73 2007; (p. 18-21)
Gothic Influences to the First Novels Gerry Turcotte , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Peripheral Fear : Transformations of the Gothic in Canadian and Australian Fiction 2009; (p. 69-103)
Anna Maria Murray : Authoress of 'The Guardian' Gwendoline Wilson , 1967 single work biography
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 3 no. 2 1967; (p. 148-149)
Two Early Novelists : Anna Maria Bunn and Mary Theresa Vidal Susan McKernan , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: A Bright and Fiery Troop : Australian Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century 1988; (p. 53-68)
Rumours of My Death Simon Groth , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Writing Queensland , March - May no. 248 2015; (p. 20)
Last amended 19 Sep 2022 10:28:32
Subjects:
  • c
    Ireland,
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
Settings:
  • 1830s
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