SOURCE: Grattan, C. Hartley. Australian Literature, pp. 13-29. Seattle: University of Washington Book Store, 1929.

In the following excerpt, Grattan offers a general assessment of Australian literature and remarks on five outstanding nineteenth-century Australian novels.

I

As in all young countries, the culture of Australia is to a very small extent an integral part of the national life. It has not worked itself into the social fabric. It is something tacked on. Something apart. The economic bones of the country protrude themselves. Such cultural life as does exist is almost as unsubstantial as those idealized houses painted on billboards.

The dominant economic influence is British, and the literary culture derives from England also. It is to England that the writers of poetry, fiction, and drama have looked and do look. The French influence is nil. So is the American, and to my personal knowledge only one journalist has had...