Colonial Australian Popular Fiction

John Lang was Australia's first locally born novelist, publishing early work in Sydney in the 1840s and going on to write several bestsellers. The Forger's Wife (1856) is a lively adventure novel, set in an unruly colonial Sydney, where everyone is on the make. The forger's wife is a young woman who follows her rakish husband out to Australia and struggles to survive as her marriage falls apart. She soon meets detective George Flower, a powerful man with a cavalier sense of justice and retribution. Flower literally controls the fortunes of the colony: taking on the local bushrangers, instructing colonial authorities, and helping himself to the spoils along the way.

A bad-tempered squatter is murdered in country Victoria and the local townsfolk are swept up in the rush to solve the crime. Will the squatter's beautiful daughter, Flora McAlpin, save her lover from the gallows? Or is the circumstantial evidence against him too strong? Ellen Davitt's Force and Fraud: A Tale of the Bush is a feisty account of a murder investigation in the colonies that takes the twists and turns of English sensation fiction in a uniquely Australian direction. The novel brings an innovative forensic eye to its crime, reinventing the squatter romance as it takes its characters from country to city and from public house to courthouse. Force and Fraud was serialised in the popular, long-running Australian Journal from 2 September to 18 November 1865. This edition includes an introduction by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver. 'a romance with a tight mystery plot . . . an assured whodunnit' Lucy Sussex, Blockbuster! Fergus Hume and the Mystery of a Hansom Cab (2015) 'Force and Fraud is pioneering in its status as the first murder mystery in Australia . . .' Kate Watson, Women Writing Crime Fiction, 1860-1880 (2012)

An Australian Girl in London, first published in 1902, is an endearing look at the journey of self-discovery that many young women of means made to the heart of Empire around the time of Federation. Its author, Louise Mack, a friend and rival of Ethel Turner, captures the experience of a provincial young woman immersing herself in the epic metropolis of London – its hard urban edges, and the challenges it poses for colonial talent, but also its rich history and culture. Sylvia Leighton embarks on an increasingly familiar narrative in turn-of-the-century Australian fiction, travelling to England to establish herself in a country she has long dreamed of visiting. Fellow Australian Emmie Jones joins her, and the two girls share a boarding house and a very close bond. 'The first impressions of a thoughtful and observant person are worth having, especially when they are pleasantly and vividly recorded.' - Sydney Morning Herald

An Australian Bush Track (1896) is a dark novel, a colonial fantasy-adventure by author J.D. Hennessey in the style of H. Rider Haggard's She. The story of an expedition into the Queensland interior by a group of speculators hot on the trail of fabulous wealth, its heroine is a charismatic young bushwoman equipped with heedless courage, a fast horse and a rifle. The novel is unrepressed in its representation of colonial racism and the driving forces behind it: frontier violence and dispossession, land acquisition and the relentless pursuit of wealth and resources. An Australian Bush Track takes us on an expedition to unknown territories, encountering lost worlds and inland seas. Along the way there are amorous train journeys, coach chases, Aboriginal attacks, shoot outs and unwanted marriage proposals. The novel also gives us an Australian girl who charts her own route through a speculative male fantasy. The edition includes an introductions by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver.

When editor Joseph Fraser is asked to publish the diaries of a local merchant, he can hardly believe what he is reading. Adam Jacobs has been leading a strange double life: split between the harsh struggles of colonial Melbourne, and the wonders of a technologically advanced, harmonious existence on Mars – where diminutive 'Martials' promenade along clean streets, travel in flying machines, and enjoy bountiful produce. Here nature is contained, and social order is complete. Originally published in 1889, Melbourne and Mars is at once a fascinating early example of Australian science fiction and a utopian socialist manifesto. It dreams of a society without money, social disadvantage or crime; where free education, electricity, and everyday comforts are provided to all. As we astro-travel with the narrator between the opposing realities, the question emerges: how will Adam Jacobs reconcile his different worlds?