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Charles Dickens' Australia: Selected Essays from Household Words 1850-1859

Book One: Convict Stories
By Charles Dickens
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Charles Dickens' Australia: Selected Essays from Household Words 1850-1859, readers are presented with a collection of essays penned by Charles Dickens and his contemporaries, offering insights into 19th-century Australian life. These essays, initially published in Dickens’ periodical Household Words, paint vivid pictures of the social, cultural, and economic aspects of colonial Australia. The book, falling under Biography & Memoir, showcases Dickens’ keen observations and storytelling prowess, highlighting Australia's unique character during that era.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3499
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This collection of essays may appeal to you if you're fascinated by Charles Dickens' perspectives on 19th-century Australian society and culture. It offers a unique glimpse into the themes and issues of that era as captured through Dickens' keen observations and storytelling flair.

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Charles Dickens' Australia: Selected Essays from Household Words 1850-1859

This volume contains stories on the experiences of convicts. Beginning with court processes and sentencing in Britain, the stories provide an insight into the conditions of prisoners on board ships to Australia and in prisons, and the range of treatments received by convicts until their conditional or final pardon.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Charles Dickens is little celebrated as a journalist, yet his career spanned nearly 40 years. Starting as a court reporter, parliamentary newspaper columnist, and theatre critic, he developed an instinct for injustice, humbug, and charade.

For 20 years, he edited his own weekly journal, Household Words, later known as All the Year Round, publishing articles and stories designed to be interesting, entertaining, and educational. Dickens had a keen interest in Australia and fortuitously began publishing the periodical at a transitional moment, just before the heady days of the 1850s gold rush set the world ablaze.

The discovery of gold drove a period of mass immigration, expansion into the hinterlands, and caused radical economic and social changes in an emerging nation. Of the nearly 3,000 articles published in Household Words, some 100 related to Australia and have been collected in this anthology.

Dickens saw Australia as offering opportunities for England's poor and downtrodden to make a new start and a brighter future for themselves, an optimism reflected in many of the articles.

The stories have been grouped into five volumes: Convict Stories, Immigration, Frontier Stories, Mining and Gold, and Maritime Conditions.

Book One: Convict Stories - This volume contains stories on the experiences of convicts. Beginning with court processes and sentencing in Britain, the stories provide an insight into the conditions of prisoners on board ships to Australia and in prisons, and the range of treatments received by convicts until their conditional or final pardon.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Charles Dickens' Australia: Selected Essays from Household Words 1850–1859 offers an intriguing glimpse into 19th-century Australiana, meticulously edited by Margaret Mendelawitz. The collection showcases Dickens' persistent dedication to social reform and moral improvement, underscoring his enduring literary and social influence.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781920898670

Publisher: Sydney University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 May 2011

Country: Australia

Imprint: Sydney University Press

Illustration: 8 b&w ill.

Contributors:

  • Compiled by Margaret Mendelawitz

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 148.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 154

Collections

Australian & Pacific History Biography & Memoir Charles Dickens History & Military Non-Fiction

About the Author

Margaret Mendelawitz is a graduate in history and anthropology from the University of Western Australia.

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