The Several Styles Used in 'Robbery Under Arms'

Abstract

This novel is often dismissed as "an unimaginative romance largely attractive to adolescents", but both its claims to literary distinction and its value to the linguist derive from its several styles and indicate that its classic status is deserved and likely to increase. Its linguistic value is based on the fact that the book provides us with a text of upwards of 220,000 words, and that, unlike the writer's less accessible diaries and autobiographic pieces, it offers a unique documentation of colloquial English language in Australia in the mid 19th century. It surpasses the prose of Alexander Harris in its use of slang, colloquialisms, popular ecological and occupational terms.