'A light coloured tribe of aboriginals [sic] is supposed to exist, the descendants of ship-wrecked European mariners who, like the mutineers of the Bounty, married aboriginal women, whose descendants in time might therefore almost be designated Australian demi-semi-aboriginal [sic] Pitcairn Islanders.
'When one finds that the daughter and the adopted daughter of a bush shanty-keeper are two charming girls whose adventures bulk largely in the book, and that, in the wonderful and mysterious tribe, a half-caste girl has reared an emu which she can direct by a signal heard many miles away, and which emu with its mate arrives when wanted by her, and on the back of which she rides away as if on the wind, one recognises the Munchausen character of, at all events, one phase of this wonderfully imaginative tale.'
Source: Rev. of The Silver Queen, by William Sylvester Walker. The Queenslander 29 Jan 1910.
Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2009
Z1238252
2003
single work
criticism
'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
Writing the Colonial Adventure : Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914
Oakleigh
:
Cambridge University Press
,
1995
Z480378
1995
single work
criticism
'This book is an exploration of popular late nineteenth-century texts that show Australia - along with Africa, India and the Pacific Islands - to be a preferred site of imperial adventure. Focusing on the period from the advent of the new imperialism in the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I, Robert Dixon looks at a selection of British and Australian writers. Their books, he argues, offer insights into the construction of empire, masculinity, race, and Australian nationhood and identity. Writing the Colonial Adventure shows that the genre of adventure/romance was highly popular throughout this period. The book examines the variety of themes within their narrative form that captured many aspects of imperial ideology. In considering the broader ramifications of these works, Professor Dixon develops an original approach to popular fiction, both for its own sake and as a mode of cultural history.' (Introduction)
Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2009
Z1238252
2003
single work
criticism
'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
Writing the Colonial Adventure : Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914
Oakleigh
:
Cambridge University Press
,
1995
Z480378
1995
single work
criticism
'This book is an exploration of popular late nineteenth-century texts that show Australia - along with Africa, India and the Pacific Islands - to be a preferred site of imperial adventure. Focusing on the period from the advent of the new imperialism in the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I, Robert Dixon looks at a selection of British and Australian writers. Their books, he argues, offer insights into the construction of empire, masculinity, race, and Australian nationhood and identity. Writing the Colonial Adventure shows that the genre of adventure/romance was highly popular throughout this period. The book examines the variety of themes within their narrative form that captured many aspects of imperial ideology. In considering the broader ramifications of these works, Professor Dixon develops an original approach to popular fiction, both for its own sake and as a mode of cultural history.' (Introduction)
