Bibliography (leaves 281-294). / vi, 294 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / by Mandy Dyson / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 1998?

This thesis demonstrates the close links between Australian literature and German thought and culture in Catherine Martin's An Australian Girl (1890) and Henry Handel Richardson's Maurice Guest (1908), and thereby provides a fuller understanding of the sophisticated literary and intellectual purposes of these two works. In examining the German elements in each novel, and the contexts from which much of that material is drawn, this study seeks to supplement the scholarly explanations provided in the two Academy Editions of these works. While Maurice Guest has received serious scholarly attention, An Australian Girl has been accorded relatively little. Despite generally favourable reviews on publication, both appear to have been undervalued over time. The study begins with a brief historical survey of German migration to Australia and the contribution German migrants made to the intellectual life and culture of the evolving nation. The examination of Catherine Martin's work includes: biographical details, particularly concerning her contact with German culture; an analysis of the form of the novel and a comparison of An Australian Girl with Goethe's Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister with regard to form, theme and characterisation; an analysis of German philosophical elements in the novel; and Martin's presentation of social conditions in Germany in 1888-90, and their role in the novel as a whole. The examination of Henry Handel Richardson's work encompasses: biographical details; the genesis of Maurice Guest; differences between the reception of the novel in England and Germany; the genre to which the novel belongs and parallels with Künstlerromane; an analysis of Richardson's description of the physical, historical and intellectual milieu of Leipzig, and its role in the novel; and finally her integration of German social customs and the German language into the text. Use has been made of five primary sources which have not been used before in any detail with regard to these aspects of either author: additional material from the Mount Gambier Border Watch; The Hatbox Letters, the family history of the Martin and Clarke families; the German translation of Maurice Guest; German reviews of Maurice Guest; and the correspondence between Richardson and her French translator Paul Solanges. The key argument of this thesis is that the German influence on both form and content, in the case of An Australian Girl, and on style and content, in the case of Maurice Guest, is deep and various, and that these German elements have proved to be an impediment to a full understanding and appreciation of these novels for many Anglo-Saxon readers and reviewers. In the two novels Martin and Richardson provide pointers to Australia's earlier interaction with the wider world and display a level of sophistication which makes these works worthy of greater recognition than they currently enjoy.

Paul Solanges was one of the most prolific (in correspondence) and enthusiastic fans of Australian author Henry Handel Richardson (HHR). What was it about him that made HHR invest so much time in his translation of her novel, and to what extent can credence be given to the self-portrait in his letters? This thesis reveals his illegitimate royal background, considers his early career as a cavalry officer in North Africa and in the Franco-Prussian War, and describes his long career as manager of the gasworks in Milan. It also portrays in detail his other life as a translator of songs, short stories and operas from Italian to French. Finally, it compares his relationship with Italian novelist Antonio Fogazzaro to his relationship with HHR. A critical edition of Solanges’s correspondence with Fogazzaro and HHR offers the reader a privileged insight into the life and character of this Franco-Italian littérateur.