[Editor: This review of The Secret of the Great Desert (by Ernest Favenc) is an extract from the “Literature” section published in The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), 7 December 1895.]
[The Secret of the Great Desert]
Mr. Ernest Favenc’s is a name well known to Australian readers, young and old. And his latest work, “The Secret of the Great Desert,” will not disappoint his many admirers.
It deals, in graphic fashion, with a mysterious tribe of cannibals in the Northern Territory of our continent, and touches, rather comprehensively, upon poor Leichhardt’s ill-fated life, its aims and results.
Lovely woman is conspicuous by her absence in these pages. A black gin or two crosses our field of vision here and there, and always effectively; but Mr. Favenc steers as clear of the “problem” novel as it is possible to do.
Blackie and Sons publish, and the excellent illustrations are by Mr. Percy Spence, one of our local artists who has gone to try his fortunes in the old world.
Source:
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), 7 December 1895, p. 9
Editor’s notes:
gin = an Aboriginal woman
Leichhardt = Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848), an explorer; he was born in Prussia in 1813, and is believed to have died in 1848 whilst on an exploration expedition in southern Queensland
See: 1) Renee Erdos, “Leichhardt, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (1813–1848)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Ludwig Leichhardt”, Wikipedia
old world = Europe, Asia, and Africa, i.e. the known world before the discovery of the Americas, the latter being known as the New World (can also refer to something dating from or associated with olden times, especially something which is reminiscent of the past in a charming or pleasant fashion; old-fashioned; traditional)
[Editor: Changed “trible” to “tribe”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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