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'This work created a world sensation. The author recounts his early life, his education and his coming to Australia. The adventures were vouched for as fact, but as narrated they are beyond the bounds of credibility. After being shipwrecked in the Arafura Sea, he reaches Australia and marries the woman 'Yamba'. He spends nearly 30 years among the Aborigines of Northern and N-W Australia. The author, born in Switzerland in 1844, has been called the modern 'Munchausen' and this work has been compared to Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: To my Devoted Wife, Yamba, The Noblest Work of the Creator, A Good Woman, And to her People, my True and Steadfast Friends, who never wavered in their confidence or attachment, and to whom I owe the Preservation of my Life, This work Is Gratefully Dedicated.
Affiliation Notes
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19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
Hoaxer Louis de Rougemont was born Henri Louis Grin (1847-1921) in Switzerland. After working in England, he travelled to Australia in 1875 as the butler of Western Australia’s new governor, Sir William Robinson, however the employment only lasted months. After some travels and a number of jobs, he settled in Sydney and married before fleeing to New Zealand, and later London. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, de Rougemont secured a letter of introduction from Sir J. Henniker Heaton to the editor of Wide World Magazine, and from August 1898 to May 1899, it serialized 'The adventures of Louis de Rougemont'. This series was a fanciful and astounding recount of his alleged thirty odd years spent as a castaway among the Aboriginal peoples of North-West and Central Australia. These articles were republished as The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, as Told by Himself. The legitimacy of this sensational, approaching mythical, account of de Rougemont's adventures was questioned at the time of publication, particularly by Louis Becke and D.W. Carnegie in the London Daily Chronicle. It was, however, published as fact, despite this controversy. The book provides an account of de Rougemont's various sea battles with octopus, sharks, and riding on the back of turtles to safety. In Australia, de Rougemont described his life among "cannibals," and his time living with Aboriginal communities. He also related his second marriage to the Indigenous woman Yamba, to whom he dedicated the text. The Australian Dictionary of Biography further states that “In 1899 he was a music-hall attraction in South Africa as 'The greatest liar on earth'; on a similar tour of Australia in 1901 he was booed from the stage.”
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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De Rougemont and Us and Some Digressions
1981-1984
single work
prose
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , October vol. 7 no. 28 (p. 95-97) A Camp-Fire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 1984; (p. 863-865) "Lawson's article, undated but probably written in 1899, takes the [de Rougemont] hoax and uses it to propound his own theories about the relevant places of fact and fiction, and Australian fiction in particular. It is notable for its defence of de Rougemont in the wake of a violent reaction from a previously all too credulous public." - La Trobe Library Journal 28, 1981, p.95 - y The Most Amazing Story a Man Ever Lived to Tell Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1977 Z1020211 1977 single work biography
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Publications Received
1899
single work
review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 7 October 1899; (p. 711)
— Review of Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, as Told by Himself 1899 single work novel The reviewer finds this fiction 'entertaining reading'.
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Publications Received
1899
single work
review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 7 October 1899; (p. 711)
— Review of Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, as Told by Himself 1899 single work novel The reviewer finds this fiction 'entertaining reading'. - y The Most Amazing Story a Man Ever Lived to Tell Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1977 Z1020211 1977 single work biography
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De Rougemont and Us and Some Digressions
1981-1984
single work
prose
— Appears in: La Trobe Library Journal , October vol. 7 no. 28 (p. 95-97) A Camp-Fire Yarn : Henry Lawson Complete Works 1885-1900 1984; (p. 863-865) "Lawson's article, undated but probably written in 1899, takes the [de Rougemont] hoax and uses it to propound his own theories about the relevant places of fact and fiction, and Australian fiction in particular. It is notable for its defence of de Rougemont in the wake of a violent reaction from a previously all too credulous public." - La Trobe Library Journal 28, 1981, p.95