AustLit

Jarvis discusses the influence that advice from the Bulletin had on the form and content of Lawson's fiction. Jarvis argues, however, that Lawson developed his own idea of realism in contrast to the European mode favoured by the Bulletin, producing stories without plot or incident. Lawson's obtrusive narrators differed from the conventional narrators found in the Bulletin, but Lawson was criticized personally for the bleak picture of the bush in his stories. This "authorial" presence became an integral element in the reception of Lawson's fiction.