Description
Book SynopsisCaroline Leakey, writing as Oliné Keese, published her first and only novel, The Broad Arrow, in 1859. It tells the story of Maida Gwynnham, a young middleclass woman lured into committing a forgery by her deceitful lover, Captain Norwell, and then wrongly convicted of infanticide. The novel's title describes the arrow that was stamped onto government property, including the clothes worn by convicts — a symbol of shame and incarceration. With its 'fallen woman' protagonist, its gothic undertones and its exploration of the social and moral implications of the penal system, this little-known novel gives an insight into a significant chapter of Australian history from a uniquely female perspective.
In this new critical edition, editor Jenna Mead restores material that was cut for a radically abridged version in 1886, restoring for the first time in over a century the complete original text of Leakey's important work.
Trade Review'The Broad Arrow is much more than a romantic story ... the main Van Diemen’s Land part is absorbing ... every page tells the reader something about the colony. This is an important book for the historian and for anyone interested in nineteenth century Tasmania.'
-- Alison Alexander * Papers and Proceedings: Tasmanian Historical Research Association *
‘This new edition of The Broad Arrow is not just the definitive edition of a hugely important colonial novel which should be read on its own terms, but is a valuable contribution to textual scholarship, and will undoubtedly remain a reference work for years to come.’
-- Tim Causer * Journal of Australian Colonial History *
"Altogether, Mead’s critical edition of The Broad Arrow is a welcome, comprehensive and assiduously researched investigation of the history of a narrative that reinforces interest in material and literary histories of nineteenth-century Australian fiction. Moreover, Mead graciously refrains from any unnecessary adulation of Leakey’s work and successfully situates The Broad Arrow at an intersection of various literary, cultural and historical trajectories that open up significant new avenues of enquiry."
-- Narelle Ontivero * Australian Literary Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
A Note on the Text
A Note on the Illustrations
Preface
Volume 1
1. The festival
2. Maida Gwynnham
3. Captain Norwell
4. The felon
5. Bob Pragg
6. Mary Doveton
7. The reverend Herbert Evelyn
8. Too late
9. The Cousins
10. The lie
11. The Rose of Britain
12. Lucy Grenlow’s tale
13. Mulgrave battery and the lodge
14. The paraclete
15. Uncle Ev and uncle Ev’s notions
16. Doubts on more subjects than one
17. A walk about Hobarton and a talk about the tasmanians
18. Aunt Evelyn and family matters
19. Being nothing particular
20. H.M.S. Anson
21. The initiation – without
Volume 2
22. The initiation – within
23. Being one about Bridget
24. The post office
25. A T.L.
26. The conflict
27. An old acquaintance
28. H.M. General Hospital, Hobarton
29. Port Arthur – O.P.S.O. – The Kangaroo
30. Port Arthur – the settlement
31. A day dream and night vision
32. The isle of the dead
33. Accepted
34. Bridget again
35. The awakening – more victims
36. Maida
37. Norwell
Summary of minor variants
Notes
Bibliography
