1446 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



way its unspoken mystery, and pourtray the new life and colour of the antipodes. From 

 that time onwards Kendall continued to write and to publish volumes of verses. His 

 " Poems and Songs " and " Leaves from Australian Forests " have attained a wide 

 Australian circulation ; and, though wanting perhaps in fibre, they have been taken to 

 express the spirit of familiar places and the poetic side of incidents known to Australian 

 life, and to have set their music to lyric words. His latest volume, " Songs from the 

 Mountains," was well received shortly before his death, which occurred in Sydney in 

 1882. His life cannot be said to have been a success. Unfitted for the practicalities 

 of life in a community where its practical side was necessarily everything, he was 

 debarred by pressure of evil circumstances from giving his talents their fair exercise ; so 

 that, in common with the rest of the small band of Australian workers, his literary 

 capacity is a matter to be estimated rather than assessed. 



In Victoria, the name of Marcus Clarke is entitled to mention. His novel, " For 

 the Term of His Natural Life," has been extensively read in England and America as 

 well as throughout the colonies, and was recently quoted by a critic in the Universal Review 

 as the only work of genius in the whole range of literature worthy of comparison with 

 the immortal " Lcs Aliserables" of Victor Hugo; and besides being translated into several 

 European languages it has been more than once successfully dramatized. Its incident is 

 taken from that sensational period of Australian history, .the convict times ; and the 

 author's vivid descriptions from authentic records of the penal terrors of early New 

 South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk Island, are graphic and realistic in the 

 extreme. Adam Lindsey Gordon, a Victorian writer of spirited verse, has also published 

 one or two volumes which have a high degree of merit and considerable popularity 

 among Australian readers. The topics treated, being mostly what are known as charac- 

 teristic " bush " subjects, are full of local colour and verve. The career of this writer, 

 and its termination, present another example of the unfortunate lot of literary workers in 

 Australia. Gordon committed suicide at Brighton, near Melbourne, without ever having 

 received any appreciable acknowledgment in his lifetime of the pleasure his verses have 

 before and since afforded to thousands of readers with an eye for Australian colour 

 and character in literature. 



Besides those writers named, the Australian drama has been enriched by the produc- 

 tion in London and America of " Captain Swift " from the pen of H addon Chambers, 

 a young Sydney writer. In the domain of fiction there are few names better known 

 among modern novel-readers than that of Rolf Boldrewood, whose " Robbery Under 

 Arms," and other works, enjoy almost a European reputation. Mrs. Campbell-Praed, 

 " Tasma " and " A.C.," are also widely-read Australian novelists. 



There have, of course, been, and are, many others, whose pens have produced good 

 work, as well as some who have published noteworthy volumes both in prose and in verse. 

 The columns of the daily and weekly Press in Australia have, from time to time, 

 contained fugitive pieces of fine literary work, of which the merits have been acknow- 

 ledged by republication in England and America. Among the writers of these may be 

 named Mr. Brunton Stephens, of Brisbane, whose " Convict Once," published in the form 

 of a volume, has been received with praise by English and other critics. The " Ranolf 

 and Amohia " of Mr. Alfred Domett, of New Zealand, has also been well received in 





