AustLit logo

AustLit

Anna Maria Bunn Anna Maria Bunn i(A32409 works by) (a.k.a. Anna Maria Murray)
Also writes as: An Australian
Born: Established: 1808 Balliston, Limerick(County),
c
Ireland,
c
Western Europe, Europe, ; Died: Ceased: 1889 St Omer, Lake George - Lake Bathurst area, Canberra region (NSW), Southeastern NSW, New South Wales,
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1827
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.

Works By

Preview all
1 The Guardian : Chapters 2-3 (from The Guardian : A Tale) An Australian , 1988 extract novel
— Appears in: Her Selection : Writings by Nineteenth-Century Australian Women 1988; (p. 22-36)
1 7 y separately published work icon The Guardian : A Tale An Australian , Sydney : An Australian , 1838 Z815656 1838 single work novel

"The Guardian: a Tale by an Australian, is the first novel published in mainland Australia, and the first by a woman. Part Gothic, part comic, it was set in England and Ireland, with only marginal references to Australia." 

Source.

"The Guardian is a long, involved and sensational story set among provincial society in south-west Ireland and in England. Told partly in the form of letters between two girls who had been friends at school, it begins as an unremarkable romance but develop into a melodramatic story culminating in a tragedy involving incest. The inventiveness of the plot, and what would have been regarded at the time as its sensational aspects, combine to make it an interesting work and it is easy to imagine that the novel would have been popular when it was released.

New South Wales is mentioned several times but always in a derogatory way, as a place where life is uncivilised and the people stupid."

Source.
X