Robbery Under Arms; A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia

[8], 413, [7], 54 pages. Ink notation on fep. Some endpaper foxing noted. Cover has some wear and soiling. The name Boldrewood came from a line in the poem Marmion by Browne's favorite author, Sir Walter Scott. Thomas Alexander Browne (born Brown, 6 August 1826 - 11 March 1915) was an Australian author who published many of his works under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood. He is best known for his 1882 bushranging novel Robbery Under Arms. In April 1871 he was appointed a police magistrate at Gulgong and gold commissioner in 1872. Browne was an experienced justice of the peace, having acted as chairman of the bench of justices at Narrandera, but his ignorance of mining and the complicated regulations drew criticism of his competence as commissioner. He was persistently attacked by the Gulgong Guardian. Its editor was convicted in Sydney of criminal libel and sentenced to six months jail. The charges against Browne were disproved, and he won favor with the miners by magnanimously interceding with the judge for a light punishment of his libeller. In 1881 Browne was transferred as magistrate and mining warden to Dubbo and to Armidale in 1884. He moved to Albury as chairman of the Land Licensing Board in 1885, serving there as magistrate and warden from 1887 to 1895 until retiring to Melbourne. In 1888 Robbery Under Arms appeared in three volumes and its merits were immediately recognized. Several editions were printed before the close of the century. At the beginning of this novel the narrator, Dick Marston, is awaiting execution for crimes committed whilst he was a bushranger. He goes on to tell the story of his life and loves and his association with the notorious Captain Starlight. Some of the events in the book are based on actual incidents carried out by contemporary bushrangers like Daniel Morgan, Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner, James Alpin McPherson and John Gilbert. Robbery under Arms has remained popular since its first publication in 1888; the novel was filmed in 1907 (a version by Tait brothers and a version by Charles MacMahon), 1920 and 1957. A television series was made in 1985. The novel has also been serialized on radio in both Australia and Britain. The book, written in first person narrative, contains repeated regrets for the narrator's crimes, highlighting how seemingly minor crimes led to an inescapable life of further crimes. These are contrasted with the success of Dick's hardworking childhood friend, who becomes a successful landowner, merchant and magistrate. The themes of honor and loyalty are repeated throughout the story, which eventually leads to Dick's redemption from hanging and, having served his time in jail, a presumed peaceful, safe and legal life. As a ripping yarn, originally told in periodical installments, the story mostly centers around the lovable villains, who are adventurers and thieves but nevertheless with high moral standards and, in some ways, trapped by circumstances of their own making. A reviewer in The West Australian in 1889 noted its authenticity: "The book is written in an original and thrillingly interesting manner, and being from the pen of an Australian author we are spared those ludicrous mistakes which English writers so frequently fall into when describing things Antipodean." English author Thomas Wood called the novel "a classic, which for life and dash and zip and color — all of a period — has no match in all Australian letters." Robbery Under Arms is cited as an important influence on Owen Wister's 1902 novel The Virginian, widely regarded as the first western. In her literary study, Australian Classics, Jane Gleeson-White noted that the book's use of the "colonial vernacular" bared comparison with Mark Twain's in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: "As with Twain's novel, it is the brilliant vitality and intimacy of Dick's narrative voice, as well as the wild adventures he has with his brother Jim, Starlight and the women they love, that make Robbery Under Arms such lively rea.…