AustLit

'Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) was first published in Melbourne, the city it describes in precise detail. Yet, several scholars of Hume’s bestselling novel approach the work as though it were written for an English audience. Although the novel was successful in the British market upon its reprinting in London, its initial scope was always a local audience of Melbourne readers. Hume himself wrote that the novel was designed “only to attract local attention” in the “narrow circle” of Melbourne (“Preface” 3). The novel thus contains many details particular to Melbourne, from dialects and social rituals to the mention of nearly four hundred specific place-names. Hansom Cab presents an opportunity to investigate how a nineteenth-century Melbourne resident perceived and depicted the colonial identity of the city and how that identity was intertwined with an understanding of urban space.' (Publication introduction)