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y separately published work icon The Big Five single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1907-1908... 1907-1908 The Big Five
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Ambrose Pratt's novel, The Big Five (1911), was one of several 'invasion' narratives written by contributors to The Lone Hand. It begins at the 'centre' of Australian civility by invoking the discourse of mateship.

'Having fallen on hard times, a gang of mates known as the Big Five come together for a last drink at the Australia Hotel in Sydney when Sir Philip Trevor invites them to form an expedition to Arnhem Land. This trope is conventional in imperialist romance, recalling the meeting of Allan Quartermain, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good in King Solomon's Mines (1886). The expedition will rejuvenate a threatened masculinity, saving the Big Five from the unmanly fate of stewing in a city office.'

Source: Lawson, Alan and Chris Tiffin. De-Scribing Empire: Post-Colonialism and Textuality. Routledge, 1994. p. 135.

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Notes

  • There are striking similarities in certain sections of The Big Five and The Australian Crisis. Both novels appeared in Lone Hand at about the same time. It is possible that C. H. Kirmess is a pseudonym used by Ambrose Pratt.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Serialised by: The Lone Hand 1907 periodical (213 issues)
      1907-1908 .
      Note/s:
      • Published in serialised format in Lone Hand in 10 monthly instalments between 2 December 1907 - 1 September 1908.
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Related Works

y separately published work icon The Australian Crisis C. H. Kirmess , 1908 single work novel

This novel about a Japanese invasion of Australia was written by Charles H. Kirmess. The story was originally published as a serial in The Lone Hand (Sydney) from October 1908 to August 1909, under the title of “The Commonwealth Crisis”; it was then published in book form in 1909 as The Australian Crisis by Thomas Lothian (Melbourne), George Robertson (Melbourne), and by the Walter Scott Publishing Company (London).
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (1)

Works about this Work

Shooting Mabel : Warrior Masculinity and Asian Invasion David Robert Walker , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 2 no. 3 2005; (p. 89.1-89.11) This article examines stories published around the beginning of the twentieth century depicting Asian invasions of Australia, and discovers consistent patterns of gendered and racialised assumptions setting Australian men, the bush and the future of the white race against Australian women, the city, and the asianisation of the nation. It argues that warrior Japan created a powerful case for an answering tradition of defiant, bush-based masculinity in Australia.
y separately published work icon Writing the Colonial Adventure : Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914 Robert Dixon , Oakleigh : Cambridge University Press , 1995 Z480378 1995 single work criticism

'This book is an exploration of popular late nineteenth-century texts that show Australia - along with Africa, India and the Pacific Islands - to be a preferred site of imperial adventure. Focusing on the period from the advent of the new imperialism in the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I, Robert Dixon looks at a selection of British and Australian writers. Their books, he argues, offer insights into the construction of empire, masculinity, race, and Australian nationhood and identity. Writing the Colonial Adventure shows that the genre of adventure/romance was highly popular throughout this period. The book examines the variety of themes within their narrative form that captured many aspects of imperial ideology. In considering the broader ramifications of these works, Professor Dixon develops an original approach to popular fiction, both for its own sake and as a mode of cultural history.' (Introduction)
The Unfinished Commonwealth : Boundaries of Civility in Popular Australian Fiction of the First Commonwealth Decade Robert Dixon , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: De-scribing Empire : Post-colonialism and Textuality 1994; (p. 131-140)
The Boundaries of Civility : Colonial Discourse in Popular Fiction of the First Commonwealth Decade Robert Dixon , 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reconnoitres : Essays in Australian Literature in Honour of G. A. Wilkes 1992; (p. 91-102)
Shooting Mabel : Warrior Masculinity and Asian Invasion David Robert Walker , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: History Australia , vol. 2 no. 3 2005; (p. 89.1-89.11) This article examines stories published around the beginning of the twentieth century depicting Asian invasions of Australia, and discovers consistent patterns of gendered and racialised assumptions setting Australian men, the bush and the future of the white race against Australian women, the city, and the asianisation of the nation. It argues that warrior Japan created a powerful case for an answering tradition of defiant, bush-based masculinity in Australia.
The Boundaries of Civility : Colonial Discourse in Popular Fiction of the First Commonwealth Decade Robert Dixon , 1992 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reconnoitres : Essays in Australian Literature in Honour of G. A. Wilkes 1992; (p. 91-102)
y separately published work icon Writing the Colonial Adventure : Race, Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction, 1875-1914 Robert Dixon , Oakleigh : Cambridge University Press , 1995 Z480378 1995 single work criticism

'This book is an exploration of popular late nineteenth-century texts that show Australia - along with Africa, India and the Pacific Islands - to be a preferred site of imperial adventure. Focusing on the period from the advent of the new imperialism in the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I, Robert Dixon looks at a selection of British and Australian writers. Their books, he argues, offer insights into the construction of empire, masculinity, race, and Australian nationhood and identity. Writing the Colonial Adventure shows that the genre of adventure/romance was highly popular throughout this period. The book examines the variety of themes within their narrative form that captured many aspects of imperial ideology. In considering the broader ramifications of these works, Professor Dixon develops an original approach to popular fiction, both for its own sake and as a mode of cultural history.' (Introduction)
The Unfinished Commonwealth : Boundaries of Civility in Popular Australian Fiction of the First Commonwealth Decade Robert Dixon , 1994 single work criticism
— Appears in: De-scribing Empire : Post-colonialism and Textuality 1994; (p. 131-140)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (4)
Last amended 3 Apr 2020 09:40:35
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