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Australia & New Zealand by Anthony Trollope

Australia and New Zealand

Author	Anthony Trollope
Language	English
Genre	Travel Book
Publisher	Chapman and Hall
Publication date	1873
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (hardback)
ISBN	978-1-107-33812-8
OCLC	654597953

Australia and New Zealand is Anthony Trollope's third travel book. It was written during his visit to the continent in 1871. He toured for over a year and published the book upon his return in England in 1873. The book was written during his travels and reflects his thoughts and life in the antipodes. Although the book had an overall good reception in England and in North America, it was widely criticized in Australia for being exaggerating. In his autobiography, Trollope himself describes the book as “….” and admits being surprised by its popularity.

Although mostly known as a novelist, and thus for his fictional work, he spent some of his ink writing travel books. Besides Australia and New Zealand, he wrote about the West Indies, North America, South Africa and Iceland.

•In 1871, he made his first trip to Australia with his wife, with the aim of visiting their shepherd son. They arrived in Melbourne first and spent 5 weeks with their son and then started off their Australia adventure.

Reasons for travel

Anthony Trollope and his wife embarked towards the antipodes to visit their son who moved to Australia in the search of better opportunities in agriculture and farming.  There is still some controversy about the location of the son’s farm. In the book Trollope says the farm in in NSW but it seems like it actually was located in QLD, but for reasons of privacy etc…

Trollope returned in 1875, and it was discussd to be to help his son end his failed business.

"He traveled either officially in the line of his occupational duties as postal missioner, or unofficially as self-appointed guardian of colonial welfare"

Trollope's interest was, as he says, "the political, social, and material condition of these countries"

As ... argues, "perhaps Trollope's purpose is best described in his own words. In the introductory chapter to Australia and New Zealand he cautions against passing snap judgement on young colonies, "the success of which must still in a great degree depend on th opinion respection their condition which shall gradually sspread itself among the inhabitants of the old world. nothing that any of us can say or write can now influence much the prosperity of the United States. But there are still many in England who have to learn whether Australia is becoming a fitting home for them and their children, and the well-being of Australia still depends in a great degree on the tidings which may reach them. The great object who undertake to teach any such lessons, should, I think, beto make the student understand what he, in his condition of life, may be justified in expecting there, -- of what are the manner and form of life into whichhe may probably fall. With this object in view, hoping that by diligence I might be able to do something towards creating a clearer knowledge of these colonies, I have visited them all. Of each of them I have given some short account,and have endeavoured to describe the advancing or decreasing prosperity of their various interests. I hope I have done this without prejudice.

Content of the book

"One of the most celebrated and prolific authors of the Victorian era, Anthony Trollope (1815–82) was also an enthusiastic traveller. This two-volume work recounts his two-year journey across Britain's colonies in the Antipodes. First published in 1873, it celebrates the success of British colonisation, but also considers with pragmatic foresight the inevitable unification of the Australian territories and their desire for greater independence. Volume 1 covers Trollope's travels through Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Each section addresses the history and governance of the relevant state, assessing also the current condition of the region's institutions, people and resources. In the process, Trollope informs his reader about everything from the temperament of Aboriginal Australians to the troubles of travelling by steamboat. North America (1862), his account of the continent during the American Civil War, and his An Autobiography (1883) are also reissued in this series."

Trollope's aim was to wrote about various parts of Australian society and culture (Durey). The book contains information going from facts to judgement and even advices on life in Australia.

He was particularly interested in the colonial life as it was already clear from his past novels and travel books. The issues addressed in this book relate to questions varying from social relations, opportunities, race, and political independence.

"Trollope intended the work to be the kind of advertisement for colonial life that provided a fair assessment of that which awaited the would-be English emigrant" ->>> Travel book but particularly oriented to audience of English emigrants.

Quotes

•He spent a year and two days  "descending mines, mixing with shearers and rouseabouts, riding his horse into the loneliness of the bush, touring lunatic asylums, and exploring coast and plain by steamer and stagecoach".

Critics and reception

•Australian press uncomfortable of his writings because feared a misrepresentation of Australia in his writings. The fear was based on rather negative writings about America by his mother and by Charles Dickens.

•Positive: found a comparative absence of class consciousness and praised aspects of Perth, Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney.

•Negative: Adelaide’s river, towns of Bendigo and Ballarat, and the Aboriginal people.

•What most angered Australian newspapers were his comments “accusing Australians of being braggarts”.

•Australian newspapers refused to fully praise of recognize his achievements.

(already existing writings)Trollope: antecedents in criticized travel writings (his mother’s travel book on America) + previously had written on North America too (-> check critics in text, it was well accepted)

Australians were unsure about Trollope’s outcome considering his mother’s critical piece on America.

Durey describes Trollope’s work on Australia as being “surprisingly modern and predictive” due to its social oriented character. In fact, multiple scholars depict Trollope’s work as pointing out social concerns and issues of the British Empire. Durey further argues that it is a common misconception to believe that the rise of social concerns has been first tackled by the contemporary generation, Trollope being avant-garde on those issues.

Birns confirms Durey’s vision and argues that “it is infrequently perceived how much of an advocate of social change Trollope was” (1996, p. 10) Furthermore, Birns believe that there is a common pattern in all his works of “surprising prescience with regards to changing political hegemonies on colonial soil” (1996, p. 10, 15) (cited in durey??

His views are describes as “refreshingly progressive, despite their occasional expression in language now considered politically incorrect”.

His bluntness did not go unnoticed. In fact, Australian critics took his unfiltered writings as over-exaggerated accusations and deformed facts. “Much of the substance of Trollope’s perceptions has consequently been overlooked”. Hence, Durey aims at “redressing the balance”.

The author points out the critics to his Australian work

While many criticised Trollope’s Australia, the critics mostly arose from the land itself rather than the rest of the world. For instance, the Times describes his work as “the most agreeable, just and acute work ever written on the subject” (in Reed, 1969, p. 148).

-         JH. Davidson (1969, p. 311) acknowledges that Trollope’s travel books generally gave the impression that ordinary people “should benefit from emigration, not only materially, but also intellectually”.

Davidson: Anthony Trollope and the Colonies

           Davidson’s focus lays more in the emigration aspect of Trollope, which he believes is key to understanding his book. On a more general note, he argues that no only his Australia travel book but also his other travel books send a message “that ordinary people should benefit from emigration, not only materially, but also intellectually”.

Notes

-         Trollope’s mother herself was an avid traveller

- Bear in mind that Trollope was the first celebrity(?) to visit Australia, however, it was not the only one to write about it. Richard Henry Horne has also published a book named "Australian Facts and Prospects" and "Australian Autobirography" in 1859.

Trollope's information, then, cannot have been startlingly new. And since he had so recently told the story of Australia and passed elaborate judgement on its possibilities, what excuse was there for another account? This time he wrote for a newspaper, the Liverpool Daily and Weekly Mercury. Through the daily press he probably reached the large industrial group who most needed advice and who could not afford the expensive Australia and New Zealand volumes.