Ernest Favenc (1845–1908)

Fairly interesting, mostly horror, stories set in Australia during the times of the gold rushes and the continent’s gradual invasion by whites. As the editor states, there’s a fair amount of casual racism. with the n-word being used to describe the Aboriginal people, and their roles are generally relegated to either savagely attacking white men who are just doing their usual thing of enclosing land, putting cattle and sheep on it, or finding and claiming mineral deposits (especially show more gold) to exploit for their own profit, or genial collaborators. On the positive side, white men killing or otherwise messing with the Aboriginals usually get their well-deserved comeuppance, and the narrators generally side with and criticize the abusive or murderous actions of their companions.

Frankly, the white men are their own worst enemies, constantly scheming against each other to keep valuable finds to themselves, often murdering their companions in cold-blooded and cowardly ways. Vengeance often comes from ghostly encounters, although a few attempts to even the score by more mundane methods still usually result in death for both parties. (There are a lot of white men to hate here.)

Along the way, we get some interesting details of the ways of the bushmen and a sense for the alien emptiness of Australia’s hostile wilderness, where death from dehydration or starvation always lurks in the background.

We also get a really funny piss-take on Christmas romance stories in “The Lady Ermetta; or, The Sleeping Secret: A Sensational Novelette in Three Parts, with an Orthodox Christmas Introduction”; the humorous “The Girl Body-Stealer”, “An Unquiet Spirit”, and ‘M’Whirter’s Wraith”; and a chilling apocalypse in “What the Rats Brought”.

I was surprised by how modern the prose felt—mostly very straightforward language and matter-of-fact dialogue (although there were a few sentences whose grammar was twisty enough to require a couple of extra readings to make sure I’d parsed them correctly).

I also feel like I have to mention the haphazard editing. It’s clear from some of the misspellings that the text is based on a scanned copy of the stories, and the thoroughness of the proofing clearly decreases as we near the end of the collection, sometimes resulting in confusion.

Overall, I enjoyed this (hopefully less-than-wholly accurate) portrayal of late-nineteeth through early twentieth century Australia, and you might as well. show less

A problematic book: it's a fascinating window on the past, but there are racist overtones that I don't like. See http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/tales-of-the-austral-tropics-by-ern...

I've only partially read the book because tis nearly impossible to read on one straight read. Too much attention to detail and not enough of a broad overview on what/why/how the subject is important. Furthermore, the maps are functionally useless. The fact I'm not an Aussie does not help matters, but I am interested and motivated. I just am not getting the reward at the end of the tunnel.

An outstanding work in a facsimile edition, with map enclosed