 Title page for A Modern Buccaneer (1894) | |
| Author | Rolf Boldrewood |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Macmillan, London |
Publication date | 1894 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 338pp |
| Preceded by | The Miner's Right : A Tale of the Australian Goldfields |
| Followed by | Plain Living: A Bush Idyll |
A Modern Buccaneer (1894) is a novel by Australian writer Rolf Boldrewood. [1]
The book was allegedly originally written by Louis Becke then rewritten by Boldrewood. [2]
Set in the South Pacific, this novel is written in the form of an autobiography, told by Hilary Telfer. Fascinated by tales of sailors and South Sea Traders, he leaves Sydney at the age of seventeen to take up a life at sea. The novel follows his adventures and provides a commentary on the trade between the islands and the practice of "blackbirding" that was rife at the time.
The "Buccaneer" of the title is Bully Hayes, an American-born ship's captain, on whose ship Telfer finds himself.
A reviewer in The Australian Star expressed an initial wariness with the novel, given that the author had moved his focus from bushrangers to Buccaneers but "it was well for one who, whether by personal visitation or reading, or intercourse with island men, had made himself familiar with the facts of the island life to weave them into such a romance as people of to-day and to-morrow would read, and possibly remember, and as would help them to an understanding of things as they are or have been. This task Rolf Boldrewood has essayed, and very fairly accomplished...All in all, it may be said that the story, tale, narrative, sketch — we scarce know how to classify it — is plentiful in the incident, and warm as it should be in color." [3]
On the other hand, a reviewer in The Australian Town and Country Journal thought Boldrewood should have stayed with what he knew: "He should stick to his stories of the Australian bush, and of the people whom he knows so much about, and avoid dealing with buccaneers either ancient or modern. He is singularly unqualified for such a subject, and talks of nautical matters in a way which smacks too decidedly of mere amateur, and mere make-belief enthusiasm." [4]
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Robinson Crusoe is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary, confessional, and didactic forms, the book follows the title character after he is cast away and spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island near the coasts of Venezuela and Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. The story has been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" which was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. Pedro Serrano is another real-life castaway whose story might have inspired the novel.
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William Henry "Bully" Hayes was a notorious American ship's captain who engaged in blackbirding in the 1860s and 1870s.
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Robbery Under Arms is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pen name Rolf Boldrewood. It was first published in serialised form by The Sydney Mail between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in London in 1888. It was abridged into a single volume in 1889 as part of Macmillan's one-volume Colonial Library series and has not been out of print since.
The Mutiny of the Bounty is a 1916 Australian-New Zealand silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the mutiny aboard HMS Bounty. It is the first known cinematic dramatisation of this story and is considered a lost film.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1905.
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This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1894.
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In Strange Company: a story of Chili and the southern seas (1894) is a novel by Australian writer Guy Boothby.
In Bad Company and Other Stories (1901) is a collection of short stories and prose essays by Australian author Rolf Boldrewood. It was released in hardback by Macmillan in 1901 as number 423 in Macmillan's Colonial Library Series.
The Sphinx of Eaglehawk: A Tale of Old Bendigo (1887) is a novel by Australian writer Rolf Boldrewood.
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