image of person or book cover 6001061588462018262.png
'A Boy's Adventures' title page
y separately published work icon A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia, or, Herbert's Note-Book single work   children's fiction   children's   travel   adventure  
Alternative title: Herbert's Note-Book
Issue Details: First known date: 1854... 1854 A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia, or, Herbert's Note-Book
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Notes

  • Also available as microform.
  • Ferguson 10617a-d

Affiliation Notes

  • 19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

    Born in Derbyshire, William Howitt (1792-1879), was a well-known writer, poet and Quaker; his younger brothers were writer and traveller Richard Howitt and physician and natural scientist Godfrey Howitt, and his wife was poet and writer Mary Howitt. After residences in Europe, William travelled with two of his sons, including future ethnographer Alfred William Howitt, to Victoria, where his brother Godfrey resided. William and his sons spent approximately two years in the Victorian goldfields, resulting in a number of publications including Land, Labour, and Gold (1855), Two Years in Victoria with Visits to Sydney and Van Diemen's Land (1860), Life in Victoria (1860) and Tallangetta, the Squatter's Home (1857). The current work, A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia is an account of a boy's travels in Australia. The text was structured in diary format and presented in the first person with a conversational tone. It described bush life, camping, and the practicalities of travel, and was melodramatic in content, tone, and illustration.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Arthur Hall, Virtue and Co. ,
      1854 .
      Link: 21997771Full text document Sighted: 11/06/2021
      Extent: 376p.
      Description: illus., [12]p. of plates.

      Holdings

      Held at: Monash University Monash University Library
      Local Id: A820.3 H863 A6/B

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Victoria
      Local Id: RAREJLT 919.4 H842B

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of New South Wales
      Local Id: DSM/A823/H863/1A1

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Queensland State Library of QLD
      Local Id: RBJ 823.8 HOW

      Holdings

      Held at: State Library of Western Australia
      Local Id: 823A/HOW 1854A

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Sydney The University of Sydney Library
      Local Id: General RB 1554.7

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Melbourne The University Library
      Location: UniM Bail SpC/MCL
      Local Id: L/J HOWITT
    • Boston, Massachusetts,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Ticknor and Fields ,
      1855 .
      image of person or book cover 6001061588462018262.png
      'A Boy's Adventures' title page
      Link: U3231Full text document Digital copy of 1855 edition.
      Extent: vii, 359p.p.
      Description: illus., [5] leaves of plates.
      Reprinted: 1861 , 1865 , 1866
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Routledge ,
      1872 .
      Extent: 376p.
      Description: illus., [11]p. of plate.
      Reprinted: 1880 , 1890-1899
      Note/s:
      • Reprinted several times by Routledge; dates of publication uncertain.
Alternative title: Abenteuer in den Wildnissen von Australien
Language: German
Notes:
According to Leah Gerber, this is the first known Australian children's novel to be translated into German (Geber, 'Building Bridges, Building a Bibliography of Australian Children's Fiction in German Translation 1854-2007' p. 143).

Works about this Work

‘Like Volcanoes on the Ranges’ : How Australian Bushfire Writing Has Changed with the Climate Grace Moore , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 13 November 2019;

'Bushfire writing has long been a part of Australian literature.

'Tales of heroic rescues and bush Christmases describe a time when the fire season was confined only to summer months and Australia’s battler identity was forged in the flames.' (Introduction)

Traversing the Unfamiliar : German Translations of Aboriginality in James Vance Marshall’s The Children and Phillip Gwynne’s Deadly Unna? and Nukkin Ya Leah Gerber , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 14 no. 1 2014;

'The tendency for Western cultures to emphasise imperial attitudes and experiences in their literature has been described by Edward Said as the primary means by which colonised people assert their identity and the existence of their own history (xii). The tradition of Australian children’s literature, which first grew out of contributions made by European colonisers and largely ignored any indigenous past has been referred to as a “product of colonial history” (Bradford, “Representing Indigeneity” 90) and “a shamelessly racist catalogue of prejudice and misinformation, of superficial clichés, offensive stereotyping and entirely subjective interpretation” (McVitty 7). Historians Robert Hodge and Vijay Mishra use the term Aboriginalism – a variation of Said’s notion of Orientalism – to describe the way in which colonial powers traditionally constructed ideas about the colonised other within patterns of discourse, aptly masking their racist objective and appearing to function constructively (27).

'Focusing on three Australian children’s texts translated into German, this paper examines how the notion of Aboriginality – at different points in time – is presented in the source text and dealt with in translation. While consideration of the purpose – the skopos (Vermeer 1989/2004) – of the translation forming the backbone of contemporary translation theory, the so-called aims of children’s literary translation also cast an important light on the way in which translation strategies are informed. Furthering the international outlook and understanding of young readers remains the most commonly agreed-upon objective of children’s literary translation. In real terms, the execution of this aim often comes down to the decision to foreignise or domesticate. The problem, as translator Anthea Bell writes, is that “one wants readers of the translated text to feel that they are getting the real book, as close as possible to the original”, but which – vitally – includes respecting the foreign aspects of the source text (62). Yet translators of children’s literature (unlike translators of adult literature) have the added challenge of having to negotiate a variety of what Katharina Reiss calls ‘Vermittlerinstanzen’ (intermediaries): parents, teachers, librarians and publishers, who place pressure on the translator (in regards to taboos and pedagogical aspects of the text), so much so that the outcome (i.e. the target text) is affected (7).' (Publication abstract)

Making Sense of 'Their' Sense of Place : Australian Children's Literature Landscape on Indigenous Land Brooke Collins-Gearing , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Children's Literature , vol. 33 no. 2 2007; (p. 27-37)

Collins-Gearing examines how representations of Indigenality, Indigenous people and life in Australian children's literature have been constructed by non-indigenous authors to accommodate a white sense of place and community, often to the exclusion of indigenous child readers.

Challenging Places : England vs the Antarctic End of the World Robin Pope , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Something to Crow About : New Perspectives in Literature for Young People 1999; (p. 42-49)
An analysis of Englishman William Howitt's work for children, A Boy's Adventure in the Wilds of Australia, and the ways in which its depiction of both the Australian landscape, and Australia's Aboriginal people, reflects an 'imperialist discourse'.
The Lure of Gold : Boy's Adventure Stories and the Australian Gold Rushes Marcie Muir , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , Spring no. 60 1997; (p. 84-96)
Our Last Book Parcel 1855 single work review
— Appears in: The Melbourne Monthly Magazine of Original Colonial Literature , May vol. 1 no. 1 1855; (p. 28-38)

— Review of A Boy's Adventures in the Wilds of Australia, or, Herbert's Note-Book William Howitt , 1854 single work children's fiction
Challenging Places : England vs the Antarctic End of the World Robin Pope , 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Something to Crow About : New Perspectives in Literature for Young People 1999; (p. 42-49)
An analysis of Englishman William Howitt's work for children, A Boy's Adventure in the Wilds of Australia, and the ways in which its depiction of both the Australian landscape, and Australia's Aboriginal people, reflects an 'imperialist discourse'.
God's One Country : The Description of Asians by Australian Children's Authors Stella Lees , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , Spring no. 60 1997; (p. 62-73)
'This paper will examine some of the representations made of Asian characters in Australian children's literature, with particular reference to the image of Chinese, who are the Asian people most frequently alluded before World War I and who have continued to be present in more recent writing' (62).
The Lure of Gold : Boy's Adventure Stories and the Australian Gold Rushes Marcie Muir , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , Spring no. 60 1997; (p. 84-96)
Changing Perspectives : The Implied Reader in Australian Children's Literature 1841-1994 H. M. Saxby , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature in Education , March vol. 26 no. 1 1995; (p. 25-38)
Colonial Transformations : Writing and the Dilemma of Colonization Elizabeth Perkins , 1988 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 13 no. 4 1988; (p. 139-153)
Last amended 11 Jun 2021 14:38:27
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