Rosa Praed's readership: in search of an Australian audience

Abstract

This paper is inspired by something Elizabeth Webby has taught me about the work of literary studies: that is not only about what is in books, but also what happens to them after they are written. That is, that we can write histories of readers as well as of writers. This paper traces the history of Rosa Praed's Australian readership, considering who read her novels in this country and under what circumstances. In focusing on Praed's second novel, Policy and Passion: a novel of Australian life (1881), I have encountered another readership worth tracing: the Australian readership as a trope, an idea circulating around Praed's novels as well as within them.