Friday, December 26, 2014

A Christmas story set in Australia

Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, Anthony Trollope

I have been saving this short novel, subtitled "A Tale of Australian Bush Life," for Christmas, since it opens "Just a fortnight before Christmas, 1871. . ."  I learned from the Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope that it was first serialized in the Melbourne Age starting in November of 1873, and then published "as the Christmas number of the Graphic" in London that December.  As I've noted before, Trollope had a bit of a "Bah humbug" attitude toward Christmas, and he wasn't enthusiastic about writing the Christmas stories that were so popular with magazine and journal editors at the time.

This story is based on a lengthy visit that Trollope and his wife Rose made to Australia and New Zealand in 1871-1872.  They stayed several times with their younger son Frederic on his sheep station in New South Wales.  Trollope drew directly on his son's experiences in this book, though he moved the action north to Queensland, to provide some cover.  Like the younger Trollope, Harry Heathcote was determined to emigrate to Australia and become a sheep-farmer.  Unlike Frederic, whose parents financed his venture, Harry was left an orphan with a substantial inheritance and his independence.

As the story opens, Harry has used his money to establish Gangoil, a station of 120,000 acres with 30,000 sheep.  He doesn't own the land but rents it from the government, which makes him a "squatter."  A recent new arrival, Giles Medlicot, has purchased some of the land of Gangoil, to set up a sugar cane plantation and mill. Those like Medlicot who buy their land were called "free selectors."  According to the Companion, in this story Trollope took on "the most vexed political issue in the Australian and New Zealand colonies at the time," the conflict between squatters and free selectors.  Frederic Trollope was a squatter, but again according to the Companion, his father supported the free selectors.  It reminded me of the clashes in the western United States between sheep and cattle ranchers, which led sometimes to violent attacks and ambushes by the cattlemen, who hated sheep and shepherds.

Harry resents Giles Medlicot and blames him for the loss of his land.  His wife Mary, whose unmarried sister Kate lives with them, sees Medlicot in a different light.  Harry faces a much bigger threat in the summer heat, when a carelessly-lit match can set off a fire that will sweep through Gangoil and ruin him.  A former station hand, now working at the mill, has a grudge against him; so does a family of ne'er-do-well squatters in the neighborhood who poach his sheep.  Harry suspects them of plotting arson.  Even with three loyal hands, he will need help protecting Gangoil's vast acres.

This is a fast-moving, exciting story.  It's not at all what I think of as a typical "Christmas" story, though it does end with a Christmas feast, complete with plum-pudding.  I don't know if it's an accurate portrait of life on a sheep station at the time.  I remember that one of Ada Cambridge's characters in The Three Miss Kings complained about "Trollope and those fellows," who "come here as utter strangers, and think they can learn all about us in two or three weeks."  Trollope also wrote a book about his travels, Australia and New Zealand (published in 1873).  I've never come across a copy, but I think it would be very interesting reading.

N.B. This was serialized in 1873-1874 and published in book form in 1874.  I am using that date for my Mid-Century of Books.

10 comments:

  1. This sounds great! I love the idea of a Trollope novel in Australia! I have quite a few of his novels on my TBR shelves, but not this one. I've only read his books set in England, except for when characters make side trips to Italy.

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    1. Karen, Australia plays a big part in John Caldigate too, and part of the story is set on the long voyage out. I've read some of his short stories set in Germany too.

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  2. No, not the typical Christmas story but it sounds very interesting nonetheless! I read a couple of Trollope's holiday stories in the new edition of his Penguin Christmas Classics and they seemed a bit flat. Maybe his dislike of writing them came through?

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    1. Anbolyn, I also wonder if the short story wasn't the best format for him? His novels are so complex, not to mention long, with all the interweaving story lines.

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  3. Nice of you to be thinking of us Down Under at Christmas, Lisa! (My Christmas was thoroughly urban, thankfully.) I have a collection on my shelf by Susannah Fullerton called 'Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia 1836-1939' (http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/display_title.asp?ISBN=9781405039505&Author=Fullerton,%20Susannah) which I really must read as it includes Trollope as well as many writers I'd never realised came this far - Jack London, Conan Doyle, Dickens, etc.

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    1. vicki, I'd be curious to know if Dickens was as mobbed in Australia as he was when he visited the US! I enjoyed Susannah Fullerton's book on Jane Austen & Crime, and I think this one sounds very interesting as well.

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  4. After coveting the Penguin Christmas Classics all season, including Trollope's stories, it seems strange to hear that he was a bit of a humbug!

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    1. JoAnn, I had read about his slightly Scroogeish attitude in Victoria Glendinning's excellent biography. Part of it was that he disliked having to write Christmas stories when he didn't feel like it, to meet a deadline.

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  5. Fascinating post--I really enjoyed learning about Trollope's connection to Australia. I know very little about him, so this was a great post to get to know him better as well as the story itself.

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    1. Jane, I find Trollope nearly as fascinating as his characters :) And I learned something about Australian history from this book as well.

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Thank you for taking the time to read, and to comment. I always enjoy hearing different points of view about the books I am reading, even if we disagree!