[TYSSOT DE PATOT, Simon.] Voyages et Avantures de Jaques Masse. A Bordeaux, Jaques l'Aveugle 1710 [ie The Hague c1715?]. 12mo modern calf. Title a touch rough around the edge, browning of the earlier sections, a pretty good copy. Au$950
First edition it seems of this imaginary Australian voyage and troublemaking utopia. The bibliographical world has accepted Rosenberg's separation and stretch of the four '1710' editions over four decades, with the first appearing no earlier than 1714 and the last not before 1742. As I have the first, his 'A', I'm hardly going to argue with him.
Early commentators dismissed Tyssot and his book with a snarl: atheistic and scandalous, socialist, meprisable (contemptible), inexpressibly confused; but modern scholars have gone industrial. A quick survey shows the wealth of academic ore mined from Tyssot: Judaism and Enlightenment; Language and the History of Thought; Astronomy, Prophecy and Imposture; Cartesianism and Female Equality; The Ideal Language; Masks, Blackness, Race; Early Deism in France; The Wandering Jew; and I'm sure there's plenty left. I do wonder how many of these scholars read the book: more than one describes a very different book from the one before me.
[VAIRASSE d'ALAIS, Denis]. Histoire des Sevarambes, peuples qui habitent .. la Terre Australe, contenant une relation du gouvernement; des moeurs, de la religion, & du langage de cette nation .. nouvelle edition, revue & corrigee. Amsterdam, Estienne Roger 1716. Two volumes together in 12mo unlettered sheep (an old repair to the spine, some chipping but solid enough); frontispieces (the same in each volume as is normal) and 8 plates. Au$1150
Maybe the fourth or fifth French edition (there were translations into other European languages) of this fairly famous Austral imaginary voyage and utopia. With new and more plates than earlier editions but I don't know what the advertised revisions and corrections are. Davidson called this "the very rare revised edition" but doesn't elaborate. At the end is a long publisher's catalogue of music.
[GUERINEAU DE SAINT-PERAVI, J.N.M.]. L'Optique Chinois, Traduit de l'Egyptien. A Londres [Paris], Rey 1765. Octavo contemporary mottled calf (tips worn, front hinge cracked but holding); iv,176;[2],263pp. In two parts, each with a title page. Au$450
Though I've seen this referred to as a reprint of the more elaborately titled 'L'Optique, ou le Chinois a Memphis ..." (1763) I'd be willing to bet that these are the first edition sheets with new title pages. I'll bet this book (and before you take the bet be aware that all the mistakes in pagination are identical). The Chinese traveller in the west is a neat enough conjunction of a number of fashions and Guerineau has tacked together a few in this oriental imaginary voyage cum utopian social satire.
[BRICAIRE DE LA DIXMERIE, Nicolas]. Le Sauvage de Taiti aux Francais; Avec un Envoi au Philosophe Ami des Sauvages. London [ie Paris], chez Le Jay 1770. Octavo, bound after two other works - both lightweight bits of French froth - in contemporary marbled calf with alternating green and red labels (a bit rubbed). A pleasing copy. Au$3500
First edition of this Tahitian incunabulum - the start of Europe's reverie - a series of letters by a Tahitian visitor to Paris. Which means of course that it is a scathing swipe at French society and politics. Paris had been given the once over by a few fictional Persians, Chinese and other exotics but now, not only did they have a 'prince' from the just discovered New Eden but he was real: Aotourou, the Tahitian who accompanied Bouganville to Paris with news of paradise on earth. So how could he not pass judgment? Naturally he chose to do so anonymously and not having more than a few words of French relied on a distinguished man of letters to write them down and fill in the gaps.
I must make it clear that Dixmerie uses none of the typical set dressing employed by authors of fictional authors; I'm doing that. He starts with an editor's account of Tahiti that draws from the only published account so far - that of the voyage's naturalist, Commercon, whose report had appeared in the journal Mercure de France in November 1769. Dixmerie was, by the way, a regular contributor to and editor of the Mercure. Dixmerie says that he could say much more about Tahiti but their Tahitian visitor wants his book to be read and has noticed that the French don't read big books.
Dixmerie's Tahitian stops short of fermenting revolution but he is nonetheless a radical in the manner of many pre-revolutionary troublemakers. His views of women are contradictory, or perhaps confused, but still he advocates equality at all levels. The confusion is understandable. The pre-occupation of the philosophe with the idea of perfect man and that of the rebellious troublemaker with an ideal society not only intersected, they now had the address: Tahiti. The sales rep was in town.
Those who met Aotourou, Dixmerie presumably among them, quickly realised he was no Arcadian but for the rest of France, of Europe, here was ideal man, that is: a man surrounded by amenable young women, nothing much else to do and plenty to eat. In other words the aristocracy. A fair minded egalitarian - a rarer breed than you might think - sees the obligation of including women in this equality business but it's hard when you risk losing that bounty of temporary maidens.
[ERSKINE, Thomas]. Armata. A fragment. [with] The Second Part of Armata. London, John Murray 1817. Two volumes octavo, together in 19th century half calf, spine elaborately gilded. A bit of browning, a handsome pleasing copy. Au$750
Second editions of both parts. This now obscure Antarctic imaginary voyage to another world connected to ours at the south pole might have been popular, in a mild and genteel way: there were supposedly five editions of the first part in 1817 and the second part likewise reached five editions by 1819. It is possible they were manufactured as part of Erskine’s joke in the preface of part two that histories such as this were doomed to obscurity whereas if he called it a romance it was guaranteed two editions at least by the lending libraries alone. While the first and second edition of the first part are different settings, the second and fourth editions are from the same setting. The first and second editions of part two are from the same setting, as is the fourth edition up until signature K which is where Erskine added some footnotes.
Erskine's Armata is dystopian in intent but he is too polite and good natured to go overboard about it and although a couple of hundred or so sailors, from earth and from Armata, are obliterated at each end of the book they are dispatched in a sentence each. Even the narrator's beloved Morvina, who is literally killed by her induction into society, is done to death in a quiet half page, the narrator apologetic for being tactless enough to mention it. But, skimming past the legal religious stuff - I couldn't follow the outrageous fraud the clergy put over the government and justice system - there are some delightful scenes of bone crunching mayhem once Armata society sets off for an evening out.
Erskine, also now obscure, was once described as the "greatest advocate as well as the first forensic orator who ever appeared in any age" (James High as quoted in Patterson's 'Nobody's Perfect'). He remained all his life a fierce defender of freedom of speech and the liberty of the press with one startling lapse: after defending Thomas Paine at the cost of his own position he prosecuted a bookseller for distributing Paine's writing. Apparently he later returned the retainer in remorse but he remained open to accusations of self interest in that case.
[Johannes van den Bosch]. de KEVERBERG, [Charles Joseph], Baron. De la Colonie de Frederiks-Oord, et des Moyns ... traduction d'un manuscript u General-Major van den Bosch ... avec une preface. Gand, Houdin 1821. Octavo, uncut and unopened in the remains of original plain wrappers (stitching loose); lxxii,110pp and two plates. Au$500
It has been argued that van den Bosch's Benevolent Society and this first paupers' agricultural colony at Frederiksoord - begun in 1818 - are less an experiment in utopian idealism than the model for the modern prison farm. Certainly from the two plates (one is a plan and view of a colonist's house, the other a birds-eye view of part of the colony) it looks, from this distance, less than utopian. Bleak is the word I'd use. Still, being a Lowlands pauper just after the Napoleonic wars can't have been much of a picnic.
Federiksoord was, to be fair, less punitive than the younger colonies at Veenhuizen where inmates were walled in to prevent escape but, looking at the dreary wastelands of Drente sretching out in every direction, it is hard to imagine where to escape to other than the bottle.
Van den Bosch's record in introducing forced agriculture to the Dutch East Indies has won him few accolades from post-colonial historians but there is no doubt that his intentions here, while hardly charitable, do share some attributes of social reform with contemporaries like Robert Owen.
Baron de Keverberg (Charles Louis Joseph I believe - his younger brother, also Baron, seems to have been named Charles Frederick Joseph; they were both government administrators and active social reformers at the same time but our Baron has the more distinguished history) has added a lengthy preface and notes to his translation of Bosch's manuscript, roughly doubling the work.
HINGSTON, John. To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, The humble Petition of the Labouring Poor of Great Britain, sheweth, ... Exeter, printed by Featherstone 1827. Two integral foolscap leaves, 4pp with gap left for an address. Folded and addressed, with post marks, to Viscount Milton with the added notation, "Petition of the Labouring Poor from Exeter". A small hole from opening the wax seal. Au$400
A radical, near utopian, demand for the Labouring Poor to have half what they pay in indirect taxes spent for their benefit. The first radical part is in the method of collecting the money: it is to come from what goes to the army and navy and by whacking taxes on the nobility, gentry and landed proprietors. Then we step up a notch. The ten million pounds raised would be handed over to associations of a thousand persons and eventually lead to universal property ownership, the abolition of Negro Slavery and a "revolution ... such as few ever contemplated ... which elevates the mind above all the previous actions of mankind". We finish with a scarely veiled threat about the madness of opposing the masses - "all power flows from them, they are now confident of that power".
Milton, later Earl Fitzwilliam, was long time MP for Yorkshire having been thrust by his father into Parliament when still underage. By 1827 his reputation of obstinancy and impractibility was well established and he and his family were described by Creevey as "the ugliest and most dismal race I ever beheld". Unlocated in Copac and OCLC.
Imaginary Voyage. The History of Bullanabee and Clinkataboo, Two Recently Discovered Islands in the Pacific. London: printed for Longman &c 1828. Duodecimo in sixes, publisher's cloth backed boards, printed paper spine label; 216pp. Endpapers spotted but an outstanding, fresh copy. 1829 inscription of C.H. Cruttwell, most likely Clement Henry Cruttwell, master (later headmaster) of Hertford Grammar School. Au$2000
Quite a rare imaginary voyage. The Islands of Bullanabee and Clinkataboo, though close to Hawaii, remain unknown to European navigators but have been trading for centuries with Japan, whose religion the islanders had embraced. As Japan was even more a mystery than Hawaii and other Pacific cultures this all allows a curious mix of supposition drawn from Asia and elsewhere, and imagination.
This imaginary Japanese religion bears a remarkable likeness to Catholicism with its idol worship, the priesthood's love of gold and the supremacy of the head of the church, the sole link of communication to the Goddess Verginee. From the tyranny of this religion comes strife and civil war of course, until sense prevailed and the priests of Verginee were expelled. The cunning and cupidity of the priesthood was relentess though and trouble returns. Again, at last, sense prevails and though devotees of Verginee may persist in their worship they are wisely barred from holding any office of power. And yet again the Verginees wormed their way inside the defences of the too tolerant islanders, this during the author's two year stay, and "in consequence of these sudden and dangerous changes in the affairs of the islands I took the opportunity of leaving them and of leaving them clandestinely for; as all liberality of sentiment was gone and the introduction of a new sort of punishment was in contemplation ... I deemed it prudent to make my escape".
RODRIGUES, Benjamin-Olinde. Religion Saint-Simonienne. Appel, Paris, Bureau du Globe 1831. Octavo 16pp, in modern plain card wrapper. Nonfatal stain in the bottom edge. Inscribed on the title is 'Tirage 5000'; surely the number of copies printed, not a claim that this is the 5000th printing. Au$150
Rodrigues was that horror of every anti-semite, a Jewish banker. He was also a mathematician with his own formula and a small but growing group of modern champions pointing out his ignored work, later discovered anew by others and honoured. But that's not important here. After Saint-Simon's death in 1825 - he had been supported by Rodrigues in his final miserable years - Rodrigues and his former student Enfantin became joint partners in running the business, so to speak. Of course they ruptured and in 1832 Rodrigues claimed he was the true apostle. It didn't work so well; he has largely disappeared from the history of the movement.
LEROUX, Pierre. De l'Humanite de son Principe, et de son Avenir ... Paris, Perrotin 1840. Two volumes octavo, uncut in modern boards, original wrappers preserved. Adhesion spots on the inner margins of the wrappers, suggesting it has been in a couple of binding; general foxing but not too strident. Au$200
First edition. Leroux eagerly dove into the Saint-Simon pool with Enfantin and Bazard, writing what became the manifesto of the group. He climbed out again quite soon, disillusioned with bourgeois individualism; no two zealous reformers can stay in the same water for long. Sometimes those groups ruptured and splintered so explosively it's hard to see how each came out with their own body parts. In a way he was the first socialist: he claimed the word socialisme was his.
LEROUX, Jules. Le proletaire et le bourgeois. Dialogue sur la question des salaires ... Paris, Perrotin &c 1840. Octavo modern quarter morocco and mottled boards; 32pp. Trimmed a bit close at the top, an excellent fresh copy. Au$125
While older brother Pierre was the philosophical centre of socialism, he claimed the word as his, it seems universally accepted that Jules was the economic brain in the mix.
Like so many of his troublesome contemporaries he ended up in exile, first in Jersey then in Kansas where he established the settlement New Humanity. He didn't stay long and from Neuchatel - still in Kansas - he published the newspaper L'Etoile du Kansas, to me one of the more beguiling titles I've come across. Sounds like it belongs in a Weill/Brecht opera. In 1880 it was on to California and a new community, Icaria-Speranza, where he died in 1883.
LAMENNAIS, F. [Felicite]. Du Passe et de l'Avenir du Peuple. Paris, Pagnerre 1841. 32mo red gilt calf backed mottled boards. A bit of browning. A small partly erased ownership stamp on the title page and the name Depiot at the base of the spine; likely Joseph Depiot of Gascony who's of no particular interest that I know of, except that he owned this and wrote a poorly thought out ode to liberty. Au$165
First edition, written in prison where he was serving a year's sentence for his Le Pays et le Gouvernement of 1840. A proper renegade priest, Lamennais started well, earning the approval of Leo XII and even the offer of a cardinal's cap. By 1833 he had turned nasty and renounced all connection with the church. 1834's Parole d'un Croyant earned him what must have been one of the speediest encyclicals ever issued. And the ire of Clarisse Vigoureux. After the 1848 revolution he drew up a draft constitution which was apparently rejected for being too radical.
VIGOUREUX, Clarisse. Parole de Providence et Melanges. [bound with Victor Considerant's Du Sens Vrai de la Doctrine de la Redemption. 3e edition]. Paris, Librairie Phalanstherienne 1847 & 1849. 12mo (19x13cm) morocco backed cloth; [4],128pp & viii,90pp. Generally foxed. Au$275
Second edition of the Parole de Providence with added writings including the 'Resurrection. Aux Femmes de France.' 1846. The first edition appeared in 1834. This was her only book - a Fourierist response to Lamennais' Parole d'une Croyant - but she was a busy journalist for the cause. Her book won a place in the Index and her censor, the Jesuit Zecchinelli, decided that Clarisse Vigoureux was a fictional front for Fourier himself. The book presented, Zecchinelli wrote (here in rough translation), 'An absurd, impious, carnal, diabolical system, which limits itself entirely to the present life and makes men lose hope of the future good to which they are destined in heaven'. He uses the pronoun 'he' for the author all the way through his critique. He is, Philippe Boutry tells us (The Roman Condemnation of the First French Socialism), silent on Clarisse's feminist claims: "I, a woman, have come to demand an account ... I demand an account from the stronger sex that rules the world, and for three thousand years has kept it chained in this inextricable maze." This from the prologue, and there is a chapter on women.
Victor Considerant might have made the apocryphal claim to Fourier that Fourier having created a universe, he, Considerant, would populate it. And he did to an extent that few other utopian socialists of the time could. Considerant was a school chum of Clarisse's son Paul, from that he met Clarisse at the centre of the then small circle around Fourier, and from that he met Fourier's ideas, Fourier himself, and Clarisse's daughter Julie.
I wonder how much the life long devotion and self sacrifice of Clarisse and Julie had to do with Considerant's retreat from Fourier's ideals of the emancipation of women. Was he a spoilt brat? And was God against her? She lost her husband and her first daughter young, lost her fortune when her brother's company went down, lost the revolution, lost the societaire settlement in Texas where she accompanied Considerant and her daughter after his exile and finally, Boutry tells us, the flower garden she planted in front of Considerant's home in San Antonio where she died was eaten by red ants.
POMPERY, E. [Edouard de]. Despotisme ou Socialisme. Paris, Librairie Phalansterienne 1849. 17x11cm, folded but not cut or stitched; ie it is still one sheet of paper printed on both sides forming 32pp. Au$100
[TOURREIL, Louis-Jean-Baptiste de]. Doctrine fusionienne : lettres apostoliques. Paris, Chez Madame Tourreil 1860. [Various printers 1845 to c1861]. Octavo half morocco (rubbed, cloth marked). A compilation of separately printed items that range between four and 78 pages. Each letter numbered by hand so as to correlate with the table of contents and solve the problem of making sense of it all. Without letters 16 and 17 - see below. Signs of use but nothing serious: corners bumped, scattered browning; pretty good. Neat inscription of Jules Remy who may or may not be the naturalist traveller. The errata have been transcribed into the text in an equally neat hand. Au$500
From what I can figure out from skimming a few digested paragraphs, Tourreil's fusionism is a casserole of Fourier, Leroux, Saint-Simon, revelation and insect hives. A rich dish for academics in gender studies. He did have some disciples and they did more to propagate his utopian notions after his death than he managed.
This contains the collected title page and preface leaf for his Lettres 1 to 22 dating from 1845 on (but for 16 and 17), a table of contents, a 30 page analytic table, and an errata leaf for those 22 letters. Then come four more items: 1. Lettre ... a notre frere D....., de Bordeaux ... February 1861; 30pp; 2. Oraison Pleniere [... &c], undated; 28pp and a plate; 3. Credo de la religion fusionienne L'Amour Divin-Esprit de Verite; undated 12mo, 12pp, title partly in manuscript; 4. Loi des Lois; undated folding broadside with an engraving.
I found a description of a copy that apparently belonged to Gustave Mouravit which had all 22 letters and the four extra items, described by Mouravit as everything Tourreil published, without doubt unique. Claims by owners like this should be treated as dubious. The BN doesn't come up anything like all the letters but they do have something titled 'Religion fusionienne' apparently written with Leon Galibert and printed in 1845.
Our copy has 32 blank leaves where letters 16 and 17 should be. It seems clear that when the first owner bought his letters Madame Tourreil had run out of copies of those two but she did have what had been printed since. This often happens with compilations of separate items put together by the author.
PERDIGUIER, Agricol. Comment Constituer la Republique. [and] Despotisme et Liberte. [and] Religion et Fanatisme. [and] Conseils d'un Ami aux Republicans. [and] Les Gavots et les Devoirants ... [and] Patriotisme et Moderation. Paris, all but one by the author 1862-73. Six works together, without whatever wrappers they may have had, in calf backed mottled boards (16x11cm,front hinge cracked but joint firm). Varied browning depending on the paper, nothing serious. With stamps of the Bibliotheque Populaire, Cantonale de Sens, gilt shelf number on spine, and each inscribed Don de M. Epoigny. Unfortunately Epoigny is a common name in Sens. Au$350
Radical republican, carpenter and fervent compagnonist (what would become a trade unionist), Perdiguier was elected to the assembly in 1848 and booted out of the country after Napoleon's coup in 1851. Returning to France a few years later he opened a small bookshop, a sure sign of impending destitution. Once championed by George Sand, praised by Sue, Pierre Leroux, Hugo, Lamartine etc etc, and supposedly given a send off by a huge crowd at Pere-Lachaise when he was buried he indeed died destitute in 1875.
What's collected here is all from his bleak later life, all self published.
POMPERY, Edourd de. La Femme dan l'Humanite : a nature son role et sa valeur sociale. Paris, Hachette 1864. Octavo publsiher's printed wrapper (spine top chipped, signs of a label removed fom the spine). Red Japanese ownership seal on the title page. Au$150
First edition of the Fourierist's feminist manifesto. He appears to have been a friend of Flora Tristan and George Sand, which must have taken some delicate footwork. Sand urged that Pompery marry Flora's daughter Aline rather than waste his time building a tomb to that madwoman (cette folle de Flora).
I wonder if many modern feminists will stomach Pompery, what with him likening a woman to a beautiful rose that needs careful cultivation. But he may have someting more sensible to say.
Hermes Trismegiste. Louis Menard. Hermes Trismegiste : traduction complete ... etude sur l'origine des livres hermetiques. Paris, Didier 1866. Octavo quarter morocco and mottled boards. Occasional patches of browning depending on paper stock. Rather good. Au$200
First edition; there were a few more over the next hundred years. Menard was another of those damn French socialists of the 1840s, fleeing to London after 1848 to escape a prison term. He settled down eventually into a life of respectable mystic paganism and pedagogy.
CLARETIE, Jules. Les Murailles Politiques de la France Pendant la Revolution de 1870-71. Chute de l'Empire - La guerre - Le siege de Paris. Complement indispensable de l'Histoire de la Revolution de 1870-71. Paris, Publication de la Librairie Illustree [187-?]. Hefty quarto quarter calf and mottled boards (some wear to edges); tri-colour title page; ii,1010 pages of examples and 12pp table of posters. Many posters or notices printed on colour backgrounds, a number printed on coloured papers. Some browning and spotting; pretty good. Au$275
The revolution, the war, the siege, the commune, as seen on the walls of Paris: the posters, proclamations, notices ... It is, as the title says, an indispensable complement to Claretie's five volume history of the revolution; I suggest the history is the dispensable part.
SCHOELCHER, Victor. Le Deux Decembre - Les massacres dans Paris. [with] Le Crime de Decembre en Province. Paris, Bibliotheque Democratique 1872 & n.d. 16mo, Together in cloth backed mottled boards (boards rubbed and worn at corners). A bit of spotting in the first work, even natural browning in the second. Au$65
Schoelcher was a life long do-gooder, starting with the abolition of slavery in 1848. He is said to be one of two assembly members on the barricades during Bonaparte's 1851 coup and wrote his histories of the Decembre crimes from exile. Given the size of those books, the speed with which they were published and the sheer mass of names and dates I can only guess that he went into some eidetic trance and dictated non-stop everything he saw and heard while a team of stenographers scribbled furiously.
In the wake of 1871 Victor Poupin's Bibliotheque Democratique has, with Schoelcher's blessing, published these extracts in a cheap popular form. The history of these little books is confused with varied claims about their originality and first appearance which aren't right.
Meanwhile Schoelcher carried on as a left wing senator, working for women's rights and the abolition of capital punishment.
HEALEY, Daniel. The Seven Christians Of Championdom - A Tale of the Times. Written, and published for and by The Author, Sydney ... 1885. 26x21cm original half cloth & marbled boards with gilt on black title label (wear to tips and edges, label quite rubbed); 152pp. Printed from handwriting by some kind of duplication or autolithography. Bookplate recording its gift from John Lane Mullins to St Sophia's Library. Au$1200
Singular, eccentric ... all the usual labels apply to this distopian, or at least satirical, romance of the city of Yendis, capital of Champiana. Daniel Healey might be better known as author Whaks Li Kell but it's unlikely. That's the painful pseudonym he used for his other known book, 'The Cornstalk, his habits and habitats' (1893), in which his target expanded from Sydney to the colony of New South Wales.
This did receive a cruel notice in The Bulletin (August 1 1885) but it was written with a hand as heavy on the wit lever as Healey's by someone who would rather be cute than intelligible. It's hard to figure out exactly what the reviewer is mocking. Elsewhere I find a Daniel Healey was an unsuccessful independent candidate for the inner city seat of Sydney-Cook in 1898 and an unsuccessful Labor (possibly) candidate for Sydney-Bligh in 1901 - which sounds like our author - but there were a lot of Daniel Healeys.
How many copies of this were produced is unknown but I'd suggest the four copies found by Trove plus this one must be a noticeable percentage. The only copy I've found sold in recent decades was this same copy.
[LANE, William]. The Workingman's Paradise: an Australian Labour Novel. By John Miller. Sydney, printed by Edwards Dunlop for the Worker Board of Trustees 1892. Octavo publisher's red cloth blocked in blind. Title browned by the endpaper as usual; there was no half title or blank between them. A rather good copy. Au$850
First edition of this influental if fairly impenetrable socialist anarchist novel by the Messiah of the working class. The 1948 edition was on the shelf of every thoughtful Australian in the second half of the 20th century but I've only ever met one person who insisted he read the whole thing. He made many improbable claims. I think an earlier generation were more thorough: copies of this in good shape have always been hard to find.
Lane's preface admits that it's a bit of an unresolved mess but those who want a happy end - like his wife - and those who want Nellie dead of a broken heart - like an unnamed friend - will have to wait for the next book. I dozed off so I'm not sure when the action switched from Nellie to Ned alone and don't know where we left her.
MURPHY, G. [George] Read. Beyond the Ice. Being a story of the newly discovered region round the north pole. Edited from Dr. Frank Farleigh's diary. London, Sampson Low & Melbourne, Hutchinson [1894]. Octavo publisher's illustrated blue cloth (two small blobs of wax on the front cover, marks on the back). Somewhat canted, not a bad copy of a book guaranteed to respond badly to handling. A signed presentation, dated March 1894, from Murphy to Geelong lawyer Aurel Just, "gentleman, Dremanist and possessor of other titles," with a quote from his character Vernon Dreman. Au$950
Only edition of this polar utopia and dystopia which Geelong author Murphy - I suspect simple perversity - took to the opposite end of the world in defiance of the usual Australian practice of heading south. Heaps of scientific advances and flying machines as expected but reform and enlightened progress can only go so far: adult women are enfranchised until they marry, then the possible conflict between husband and wife is not worth the candle.
"The chief characters seem to spend a deal of unnecessary time in consuming oysters and brown bread" warned the North Melbourne Courier and West Melbourne Advertiser in an otherwise warm review while suggesting it would be commercially more canny to set the book in central Australia.
McIVER, G. [George]. Neuroomia: A New Continent. A manuscript delivered from the deep. Melbourne, George Robertson 1894. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper. A touch of wear to the bottom of the spine; a nice copy, outstanding for this book, usually found in gruesome shape. Au$2000
First edition, Australian wrappered issue to be precise. It appeared in cloth, boards, or wrappers, and with a London imprint. Neuroomia is a true utopia, larger than Australia, hidden in the centre of the Antarctic. I have remarked before on the crowds of stranded or lost travellers roaming around the Antarctic towards the end of the 19th century. It's a big place but surely they must have bumped into each other. And all those ancient and advanced civilisations must have been cheek to jowl.
I spent a bit of time wondering how much of this is naive and how much tongue in cheek, if not mocking. I'm undecided. But it's clear McIver understood well the form of imaginary travel: the hero must be a blockhead, otherwise nothing ever happens to interrupt endless sere and drear explanatory dialogues. He's made our hero an indefatigably bumptious, often offensive blockhead - and a serial mauler of lovely young women - so there's plenty of action.
Neuroomia is an impressively advanced socialist white middle class heaven, or would be if there was any religion. Women have liberty and equality but choose not to take any part in decision making and "are always careful not to abuse that liberty." Our hero was frightened by individual flying machines on his first day in Neuroomian society but that seems to have been a lost art by the next page. All travel from then is by ship, rail, or creature drawn carts - on a bewildering scale to be fair.
No more than two thirds of the way through our hero begins to be reflective and learn from his painful self inflicted lessons so overall consequence needs ratcheting up and we are introduced to prehistoric - to us, not the Neuroomians - cataclysms caused by a wandering planet, life on Mars, interplanetary migration and the source of life on earth. None of this gets too much in our way.
McIver, a schoolteacher at Macksville in northerly NSW when he wrote this, apparently made some money from it. If so, he wasn't spurred to produce more. Much later he wrote for papers and magazines, produced a memoir of his droving days, and a slim volume of verse near the end of his life.
TUCKER, Horace. The New Arcadia. An Australian story. London, Melbourne &c, George Robertson 1894. Octavo publisher's brown cloth titled in black. Spine canted, minor signs of use. Floridly inscribed and signed by Tucker in 1897 to John Cuthbert Traill and "dedicated without permission to Mrs Traill." Au$350
First edition. More romantic thriller - with murderous, will tampering, downright communist villains - than utopian polemic but a serious utopian novel none the less; unusual for the time in that it is not set in the future, a lost world or another planet. It's the story of a number of idealistic settlements, including Amazona, a women’s community; makes short work of the attempted communist society and ends with the triumph of co-operation. But not so much personal triumph, quite a bit of melodramatic death occurs before then. As one reviewer noted, "the author has an unpleasant knack of killing amiable people."
All this is bound to a material if unsuccessful scheme. Tucker and Charles Strong promoted the resettlement of the unemployed in country areas and between 1892 and 1894 some 200 families were established in Tucker Village Settlements in Victoria. They failed for the usual reasons - lack of capital, a declining economy and mismanagement - but did see the Settlement of Lands Act (1893) enacted. Not in Hubin; it should be.
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