SOURCE: Sinnett, Frederick. “The Fiction Fields of Australia.” In The Writer in Australia: A Collection of Literary Documents 1856 to 1964, edited by John Barnes, pp. 8-32. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1969.

In the following essay, originally published in 1856, Sinnett acknowledges the lack of any first-rate Australian novels by the middle of the nineteenth century but calls Catherine Helen Spence's Clara Morison “the best Australian novel” yet published and offers commentary on Charles Rowcroft's Tales of the Colonies.

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Man can no more do without works of fiction than he can do without clothing, and, indeed, not so well; for, where climate is propitious, and manners simple, people often manage to loiter down the road of life without any of the ‘lendings’ that Lear cast away from him; yet, nevertheless, with nothing between the blue heaven and their polished skins, they will gather in a circle round some dusky orator or vocalist...