AustLit logo

AustLit

image of person or book cover 6531983858948414992.jpg
Courtesy of Monash Library
y separately published work icon Melbourne and Mars : My Mysterious Life on Two Planets : Extracts from the Diary of a Melbourne Merchant single work   novel   science fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 1889... 1889 Melbourne and Mars : My Mysterious Life on Two Planets : Extracts from the Diary of a Melbourne Merchant
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Follows the story of Adam Jacobs, born in 1818 in Lancashire, who moves to Australia with his family when his father is sentenced to transportation for his involvement in a fight. The story then follows Adam's life as he grows up, marries, enters business, and then follows the goldrush. At the age of 45, he begins to have dreams of a child on Mars. It becomes clear that he is living two lives at once, one on Earth, the other as a child in a utopian Mars.

Notes

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Related Works

VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

A Feminist, Imperialist Utopia: Sir Julius Vogel and Anno Domini 2000 Lucy Sussex , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 176-182) Meanjin Online 2022; 'Utopias are neither as popular nor as frequent as their dark mirror, dystopias. Projecting from today into the future, using the thought experiment of extrapolation '(if this goes on...)' tends to produce more pessimism than optimism. That is hardly surprising in our perennially anxious times. Nor are vintage utopias palatable to a modern audience: they can contain racism, eugenics, or happily exterminate most of the biosphere (as in Joseph Fraser's 1889 'Melbourne and Mars: My Mysterious Life on Two Planets'). What can seem perfection then can read like tedious hell now. Additionally, utopias are not easy to write well, as polemical perfection lacks conflict, tension, the inherent interest of the devil's party. Some have endured, like Plato's Republic, but it is certainly less read than 'The Handmaid's Tale' or 1984.' (Publication abstract)
A Better Life on Mars Alexandra Roginski , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , June 2020;

'A colonial-era novel provides a window onto the ideas that produced our fractured federation' 
Utopia and Utopian Studies in Australia Andrew Milner , Verity Burgmann , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Utopian Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2016; (p. 200-209) 'There are no independently Australian translations of Thomas More’s Utopia. Nor is there any equivalent in Australia to the Society for Utopian Studies in North America or the Utopian Studies Society in Europe. Nor are there any extant formal research groups or undergraduate or graduate courses in utopian studies. There are, however, distinctively Australian traditions of utopian writing, both eutopian and dystopian, and also a limited field of Australian utopian studies, essentially the work of individual scholars. This article attempts a brief description of both.' (Publication summary)
Other Worlds Graham Stone , 2001 single work review biography
— Appears in: Notes on Australian Science Fiction 2001; (p. 85-86)
— Review of Melbourne and Mars : My Mysterious Life on Two Planets : Extracts from the Diary of a Melbourne Merchant Joseph Fraser , 1889 single work novel ; The Germ Growers : The Strange Adventures of Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham Robert Potter , 1892 single work novel
Other Worlds Graham Stone , 2001 single work review biography
— Appears in: Notes on Australian Science Fiction 2001; (p. 85-86)
— Review of Melbourne and Mars : My Mysterious Life on Two Planets : Extracts from the Diary of a Melbourne Merchant Joseph Fraser , 1889 single work novel ; The Germ Growers : The Strange Adventures of Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham Robert Potter , 1892 single work novel
Utopia and Utopian Studies in Australia Andrew Milner , Verity Burgmann , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Utopian Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2016; (p. 200-209) 'There are no independently Australian translations of Thomas More’s Utopia. Nor is there any equivalent in Australia to the Society for Utopian Studies in North America or the Utopian Studies Society in Europe. Nor are there any extant formal research groups or undergraduate or graduate courses in utopian studies. There are, however, distinctively Australian traditions of utopian writing, both eutopian and dystopian, and also a limited field of Australian utopian studies, essentially the work of individual scholars. This article attempts a brief description of both.' (Publication summary)
A Feminist, Imperialist Utopia: Sir Julius Vogel and Anno Domini 2000 Lucy Sussex , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , June vol. 81 no. 2 2022; (p. 176-182) Meanjin Online 2022; 'Utopias are neither as popular nor as frequent as their dark mirror, dystopias. Projecting from today into the future, using the thought experiment of extrapolation '(if this goes on...)' tends to produce more pessimism than optimism. That is hardly surprising in our perennially anxious times. Nor are vintage utopias palatable to a modern audience: they can contain racism, eugenics, or happily exterminate most of the biosphere (as in Joseph Fraser's 1889 'Melbourne and Mars: My Mysterious Life on Two Planets'). What can seem perfection then can read like tedious hell now. Additionally, utopias are not easy to write well, as polemical perfection lacks conflict, tension, the inherent interest of the devil's party. Some have endured, like Plato's Republic, but it is certainly less read than 'The Handmaid's Tale' or 1984.' (Publication abstract)
A Better Life on Mars Alexandra Roginski , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Inside Story , June 2020;

'A colonial-era novel provides a window onto the ideas that produced our fractured federation' 
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (4)
Last amended 26 May 2021 12:35:34
Subjects:
  • 1800-1899
Settings:
  • c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • c
    Australia,
    c
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
  • Solar system & outer space,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X