[FISHER’S GHOST] Une cause célèbre en Australie. L’esprit.

A$375 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

IN: L ami de la maison , Paris : Paulin et Le Chevalier, vol. 1 no 11, March 20 1856, pp161-67 and vol. 1 no. 12, March 27 1856, pp177-82, each part with 3 engraved illustrations; contained within a bound volume of nos. 1-25 (the complete first volume), January-June 1856, quarto, contemporary quarter calf over marbled papered boards (rubbed), spine with gilt lettering and rule, pp 1-404 (last 2 leaves with staining and loss), illustrated, scattered foxing. The legend of Fisher s Ghost is based on a true story, the murder of Frederick Fisher by George Worrell in western Sydney in 1827. Worrell was hanged for the crime. The introduction of Fisher s ghost into the narrative a plot device which transforms the story into a successful work of fiction is first evidenced in 1832, when an anonymous version of the story in verse form appeared in the Sydney journal Hill s Life , under the title The sprite of the creek . In 1836 a second version was published in Tegg s Monthly Magazine . It was titled Fisher s Ghost : a legend of Campbelltown , but again the identity of the author remains uncertain. In 1845 John Lang, a barrister considered to be the first Australian-born novelist, published his first version of the story in his Calcutta journal, The Mofussilite , with the simple title A ghost story. Lang s work was later exposed to a much wider reading audience when it appeared in Charles Dickens literary periodical Household Words , in 1853, although it was published anonymously. The u

• Binding: Hardcover

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