New South Wales and Queensland / by Anthony Trollope

[Kim Allen Scott]

Anthony Trollope was one of England’s most popular authors in the nineteenth century.  His well-drawn characters and situational plots that depend on a strict interpretation and observation of Victorian mores make for excellent reading today.  Unlike Dickens, who loved to write about common folk, Trollope liked to present stories involving the upper classes, and painted a rich picture of life in England for those fortunate enough to earn enough money to enjoy it.  But Trollope wrote non-fiction essays too, and this book which describes Australia during the 1870s is an example of his work as a travel writer.  He visited the country in the early years of the decade and must have taken copious notes from everything he observed.  In this study he is able to summarize the economy, the character of the people, and even the politics of New South Wales and Queensland in an easily digested format.  The prose is somewhat flat to anyone looking for the humor that occasionally enlivens his novels, though, and unless the topic of Australian history is of interest to you, this account will not satisfy.  Fortunately I am particularly interested in this decade of the country’s development, and I found Trollope’s insights to be very helpful in my own work.  Of particular interest is his description of land settlement and the conflicts between squatters and selectors, related with a pretty even-handed narrative of each group’s virtues and shortcomings.

(Thanks to my dear friend Jane for this book; I thoroughly enjoyed it!)