Arcady in Australia: The evocation of Australia in nineteenth-century English Literature

This provocative book examines the vision of Australia in nineteenth-century English literature. The industrial revolution destroyed the myth of an idyllic rural way of life in England, and writers like Charles Dickens, Bulwer Lytton and Charles Reade created it anew in the improbable environment of Australia. The popular image of Australia in English literature was Arcadian; in turn it dominated the thought and traditions of writing in Australia.

The man who supplied the material for Engli...