The Anthology of Colonial Australian Adventure Fiction

Marauding bushrangers, lost explorers, mad shepherds, new chums and mounted troopers: these are some of the characters who populate the often perilous world of colonial Australian adventure fiction. Squatters defend their hard-earned properties from attack, while floods and other natural disasters threaten to wipe any trace of settlement away. Colonial Australian adventure fiction takes its characters on a journey into remote and unfamiliar territory, often in pursuit of wealth and well-being. But these journeys are invariably fraught with danger, and everything comes at a price. This anthology collects the best examples of colonial Australian adventure fiction, with stories by Ernest Favenc, Louis Becke, Rosa Praed, Guy Boothby, and many others.

Ken Gelder is a professor of literary studies at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Popular Fiction: The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field, Reading the Vampire, and Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice. He is the coauthor of After the Celebration and Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation. Rachael Weaver is research fellow in literary studies at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of The Criminal of the Century.