Rolf Boldrewood

Broschiertes Buch

Robbery Under Arms

Beschreibung

Robbery Under Arms, subtitled A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia, was published in serial form in the Sydney Mail newspaper between July 1882 and August 1883. It was published under the name of Rolf Boldrewood, a pseudonym for Thomas Alexander Browne, a police magistrate and gold commissioner. Robbery Under Arms is an entertaining adventure story told from the first person point of view of Richard ¿Dick¿ Marston. The story is in the form of a journal written from jail where he¿s waiting to be hanged for his crimes. Marston and his brother Jim are led astray as young men by their father, who made money by cattle ¿duffing,¿ or stealing. They are introduced to their father¿s associate, known only as Captain Starlight, a clever and charming fraudster. After a spell in jail, from which he escapes, Marston, his brother, and father are persuaded by Starlight to operate as bank robbers and bushrangers. They embark on a life continually on the run from the police. Despite this, Dick and Jim also manage to spend a considerable time prospecting for gold, and the gold rush and the fictitious gold town of Turon are described in detail. The character of Captain Starlight is based largely on the real-life exploits of bushrangers Harry Redford and Thomas Smith, the latter known as ¿Captain Midnight.¿ Regarded as a classic of Australian literature, Robbery Under Arms has never been out of print, and has been the basis of several adaptations in the form of films and television serials. This Standard Ebooks edition is unabridged, and restores some 30,000 words from the original serialization which were cut out of the 1889 one-volume edition of the novel.

Autor

Browne was born in London, the eldest child of Captain Sylvester John Brown, a shipmaster formerly of the East India Company, and his wife Elizabeth Angell, née Alexander. His mother was his earliest admirer and most indulgent critic . . . to whom is chiefly due whatever meed of praise my readers may hereafter vouchsafe (Dedication Old Melbourne Memories). Thomas added the 'e' to his surname in the 1860s. After his father's barque Proteus had delivered a cargo of convicts in Hobart, the family settled in Sydney in 1831. Sylvester Brown took up whaling and built a stone mansion, Enmore, which gave its name to the suburb of Sydney. Thomas Browne was sent to W. T. Cape's school at Sydney, and afterwards to Sydney College, when Cape became its headmaster. One of Browne's closest school friends was a son of Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes, MLC, the Collector of Customs for New South Wales, and according to the Dulhunty Papers, Browne spent carefree holidays staying with the Gibbes family at their grand waterside residence on Sydney's Point Piper.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Culturea
• Seitenzahl: 768
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. April 2023
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 210mm x 148mm x 41mm
• Gewicht: 974g
• ISBN-13: 9791041803521
• Artikelnr.: 68515533