First edition | |
Author | Mrs Alick Macleod |
---|---|
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Publisher | Richard Bentley, London |
Publication date | 1890 |
Media type | Print hardback |
Pages | 474 |
ISBN | 0863582214 |
Preceded by | The Moated Grange |
Followed by | The Silent Sea |
An Australian Girl (1890) is a novel by Australian author Catherine Edith Macauley Martin, published under her pseudonym "Mrs. Alick Macleod". The book was originally published in three volumes of 331, 345 and 339 pages, though later editions abridged the text to 474 pages. [1]
The novel is set in Australia and Europe in the 1880s. The story follows the early life of Stella Courtland, who, feeling herself unable to marry an Anglo-German intellectual Anselm Langdale, instead marries a long-term suitor who she later discovers is an alcoholic. She also discovers that Langdale is not already married as she originally thought. Following a breakdown and consideration of leaving her husband she finally decides to honour her marriage and stand by him.
Writing in The Advertiser (Adelaide) at the time of the book's publication, a reviewer, while finding some padding in the work, stated: "The author may be congratulated on the composition of a highly ingenious story told with considerable force and pathos. It has the merit of freshness of scene and novelty of character, the localities and the scenery described in it being for the most part South Australian." [2]
The Sydney Mail reviewer was also equivocal but saw promise: "With a little more accuracy and a good deal less philosophy we see no reason why this writer, who is apparently a "new hand," should not at the next attempt produce a really readable novel. There are passages by no means wanting in power, and when the principal characters get off their stilts and talk like ordinary mortals the dialogue is easy and natural." [3]
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.
Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the book over several months at the request of her publisher. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. It is loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters. Scholars classify it as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel.
Jude the Obscure is a novel by Thomas Hardy, which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895. It is Hardy's last completed novel. Its protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. The other main character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also his central love interest. The novel is concerned in particular with issues of class, education, religion, morality and marriage.
Thea Beatrice May Astley was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education - primary, secondary and tertiary.
Mary Louisa Molesworth, néeStewart was an English writer of children's stories who wrote for children under the name of Mrs Molesworth. Her first novels, for adult readers, Lover and Husband (1869) to Cicely (1874), appeared under the pseudonym of Ennis Graham. Her name occasionally appears in print as M. L. S. Molesworth.
Seven Little Australians is a classic Australian children's literature novel by Ethel Turner, published in 1894. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father Captain Woolcot, and faithful young stepmother Esther.
Catherine Edith Macauley Martin was an Australian novelist who used the pseudonyms M.C. or Mrs Alick MacLeod, or published anonymously.
Lesbia Harford was an Australian poet, novelist and political activist.
Evadne Price, probably born Eva Grace Price, was an Australian-British writer, actress, astrologer and media personality. She also wrote under the pseudonym Helen Zenna Smith.
Celestina is an eighteenth-century English novel and poet Charlotte Turner Smith’s third novel. Published in 1791 by Thomas Cadell, the novel tells the story of an adopted orphan who discovers the secret of her parentage and marries the man she loves. It is a courtship novel that follows the typical Cinderella plot while still commenting on contemporary political issues.
Ten Creeks Run : A Tale of the Horse and Cattle Stations of the Murrumbidgee (1930) is a novel by Australian writer Miles Franklin.
Ride on Stranger (1943) is a novel by Australian writer Kylie Tennant.
The Scourge-Stick (1898) is a novel by Australian writer Rosa Praed.
Walter Stanley Paget was a British illustrator of the late 19th and early 20th century, who signed his work as "Wal Paget". Paget held a gold medal from the Royal Academy of Arts, and was the youngest of three brothers, Henry M. Paget (eldest) and Sidney Paget, all illustrators.
The Broad Arrow; Being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham, a Lifer is an 1859 novel published by the English writer Caroline Woolmer Leakey under the pseudonym Oliné Keese. Set in Van Diemen's Land, it was one of the first novels to describe the Australian convict system and one of only two colonial novels to feature a female convict as its main character. It has been described as a precursor of the better-known For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke (1870–72), who used Leakey's book as a source for his story.
Enid Elizabeth Backhouse was an Australian novelist, scriptwriter and playwright, best known for her family history Against Time and Place.
Elisabeth MacIntyre(born Elisabeth Innes MacIntyre, also spelled Elizabeth MacIntyre; 1916–2004) was an Australian writer and illustrator. She mainly produced children's picture books and cartoon strips, but also created cartoon strips for adults and novels for young adults. She is recognised as "a staunch advocate of promoting Australian animals and surrounds in an era when the majority of children's books were imported from England". Her picture books appealed for their lively, bright illustrations and "irresistible", "infectious", stories, which used line and words economically and effectively. She was successful in the Australian, American and British markets, and some of her novels were also translated into German and Japanese. Her best known works are Ambrose Kangaroo, Susan, Who Lives in Australia, and Hugh's Zoo, for which she won the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book in 1965.
Wolla Meranda was an Australian novelist, journalist, editor and artist.
Alice Abigail Corkran was an Irish author of children's fiction and an editor of children's magazines. Born in France to Irish parents, she grew up in the stimulating environment of her mother's literary salon. She was a playmate of Robert Browning's ageing father, and still had his workbooks in her possession when she died. As well as writing a number of well received novels, she edited first the Bairn's Annual and then The Girl's Realm, being the founder of that magazine's Guild of Service and Good Fellowship, which maintained a cot at the Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, among other charitable works.
John George Haslette Vahey was a versatile and prolific author of detective fiction in the genre's Golden Age in the 1920s and 30s. Although his work has remained largely out of print since the end of the golden age, he is now enjoying a resurgence of popularity, and some of his work is again in print, or available as e-books.