The Anthology of Colonial Australian Crime Fiction
by Ken Gelder
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Description
From the editors of The Anthology of Colonial Australian Gothic Fiction comes this fascinating collection of disturbing mysteries and gruesome tales by authors such as Mary Fortune, James Skipp Borlase, Guy Boothby, Francis Adams, Ernest Favenc, 'Rolf Boldrewood' and Norman Lindsay, among many others. In the bush and the tropics, the goldfields and the city streets, colonial Australia is a troubling, bewildering place and almost impossible to regulate--even for the most vigilant detective. show more Ex-convicts, bushrangers, ruthless gold prospectors, impostors, thieves and murderers flow through the stories that make up this collection, challenging the nascent forces of colonial law and order. The landscape itself seems to stimulate criminal activity, where identities change at will and people suddenly disappear without a trace. The Anthology of Colonial Australian Crime Fiction is a remarkable anthology that taps into the fears and anxieties of colonial Australian life. show lessTags
Member Reviews
This is a compilation of short stories that fans of crime fiction in general, and the local product in particular, will have on their must read lists.
Written from 1859 to 1933, this selection of 17 stories provide a fascinating insight into the social issues that were being addressed by crime fiction authors during that period. Not surprisingly, the delivery may have changed - and I suppose we're not tracking murderers through the bush on horseback much anymore - but the fundamental worries then are not a lot different from those that are being written about now. Nor is the standard of the storytelling, which in this book is absolutely fantastic. The collection contains stories from some of our finest early writers - John Lang, William show more Burrows, Mary Fortune, James Skipp Borlase, BL Farjeon, RP Whitworth, Campbell McKellar, Francis Adams, Ernest Favene, Guy Boothby, Roderic Quinn, Coo-ee (William Sylvester Walker), EW Hornung, 'Rolf Boldrewood' (Thomas Alexander Browne), Randolph Bedford, Norman Lindsay and Alan Michaelis.
Particular favourites of mine were the Mary Fortune stories (not just because she stands out amongst the male writers), the Norman Lindsay story and the Francis Adams - which contains references to events in The Murder of Madeline Brown; as an added bonus many of the stories are based in and around the Goldfields of Victoria (which gives the whole thing a particularly local feel for me anyway). All the stories are replicated from their originals, so the language and terminology is exactly as it was at the time - giving a very accurate representation of the style of writing, talking and living for the period. This has the added bonus of giving readers a look at how long so many of our local colloquialisms have been around, and conversely, how much has been lost.
Despite the possibility of local flavour, not just because it contains entries from favourite authors, this Anthology is a fascinating glimpse into our history, and into the quality and breadth of the Australian crime fiction writing fraternity, which it's easy to forget has been around for a long long time now. Australian have always told their own stories, and books like THE ANTHOLOGY OF COLONIAL AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION remind us how strong that tradition has always been. show less
Written from 1859 to 1933, this selection of 17 stories provide a fascinating insight into the social issues that were being addressed by crime fiction authors during that period. Not surprisingly, the delivery may have changed - and I suppose we're not tracking murderers through the bush on horseback much anymore - but the fundamental worries then are not a lot different from those that are being written about now. Nor is the standard of the storytelling, which in this book is absolutely fantastic. The collection contains stories from some of our finest early writers - John Lang, William show more Burrows, Mary Fortune, James Skipp Borlase, BL Farjeon, RP Whitworth, Campbell McKellar, Francis Adams, Ernest Favene, Guy Boothby, Roderic Quinn, Coo-ee (William Sylvester Walker), EW Hornung, 'Rolf Boldrewood' (Thomas Alexander Browne), Randolph Bedford, Norman Lindsay and Alan Michaelis.
Particular favourites of mine were the Mary Fortune stories (not just because she stands out amongst the male writers), the Norman Lindsay story and the Francis Adams - which contains references to events in The Murder of Madeline Brown; as an added bonus many of the stories are based in and around the Goldfields of Victoria (which gives the whole thing a particularly local feel for me anyway). All the stories are replicated from their originals, so the language and terminology is exactly as it was at the time - giving a very accurate representation of the style of writing, talking and living for the period. This has the added bonus of giving readers a look at how long so many of our local colloquialisms have been around, and conversely, how much has been lost.
Despite the possibility of local flavour, not just because it contains entries from favourite authors, this Anthology is a fascinating glimpse into our history, and into the quality and breadth of the Australian crime fiction writing fraternity, which it's easy to forget has been around for a long long time now. Australian have always told their own stories, and books like THE ANTHOLOGY OF COLONIAL AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION remind us how strong that tradition has always been. show less
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Author Information
23+ Works 348 Members
Ken Gelder is Professor of English in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His books include Reading the Vampire (1994), the co-authored Uncanny Australia (1998), Popular Fiction: The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field (2004), and Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice (2007). He is show more editor of The Horror Reader (2000) and the second edition of The Subcultures Reader (2005). show less
Common Knowledge
- Disambiguation notice
- **The contents of this title are not the same as 'The Anthology of Colonial Australian Gothic Fiction' edited by the same author
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Mystery
- DDC/MDS
- 823.0872 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction By type Genre fiction Adventure fiction Mystery fiction
- LCC
- PR9617.35 .D48 .A67 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 16
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- 1,512,217
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
