The Emigrant Family, or, The Story of an Australian Settler. By the Author of 'Settlers and Convicts'
London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1849 (first edition).
Octavo, three volumes, xii, 303, [1] (colophon); [iv], 315, [1] (colophon); and viii, 304 pages.
Original quarter cloth and plain papered boards, with the original paper title-labels on the spines (a secondary binding); minor insect damage to the cloth on the spines; labels slightly chipped, with the loss of an initial letter E to one of them; corners bumped and a little worn (the top corners of the first volume more heavily so); bottom portion of the rear cover of the third volume a little waterstained (with some light pink discolouration - see below); all endpapers are foxed; the pastedowns of the first two volumes have residual dried paste stained light red around the edges, where old protective cloth covers have been removed; the rear endpaper of the second volume has a small tidemark at the foot of the gutter; the free endpapers of the third volume are partially attached to the pastedowns and have a tidemark in the bottom portion; notwithstanding, a decent set, with the textblocks clean and bright, with all edges uncut.
'The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature' describes this as 'an important work of early colonial fiction', with authenticity to the events narrated and their background. One of the major plots is 'the machinations of the American Negro Martin Beck ... Harris's elevation of Beck to the title of the second edition [in 1852] indicates the importance he attached to the malign, and maligned, outsider, who seeks to gain wealth and power in order to compensate for the inferior position his colour creates for him in colonial society'. Harris devotes almost a quarter of the preface to Beck: 'Of course, all must not expect to meet with a Martin Beck for an overseer ... The use, moreover, which I have made of the character of Beck will be found a most legitimate and important one: that of exhibiting to the new settler the various great errors which may be fallen into, and must be guarded against'. Provenance: 'Hay Macdowall Grant Esqre | Arndilly | 1849' is inscribed on the front free endpapers. Hay Macdowall Grant (1806-1870) inherited Arndilly House, overlooking the River Spey near Craigellachie, Moray, in 1849, about as far away in all respects from the life Harris describes. Ferguson, 5061; Miller and Macartney, page 219; OCAL (second edition), page 255. [3 items].
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