Quintus Servinton : A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurence

by Henry Savery

By setting, by date of publication, and the residence of the author, Quintus Servinton is rightly regarded as Australia's first novel. Printed in Hobart Town in three volumes, in 1830-1, and expressly intended for dispatch to England (where it was re-issued in London in 1832), only a few copies were reserved for sale in Tasmania. Of these, only three are known to survive, and the book has long been inaccessible to any but the most persistent of readers.
It presents an invaluable and fascinating picture - first of English provincial life and of contemporary business dealing, and then of convict life as experienced by an educated convict, a contrast and complement to the Ralph Rashleigh picture of the convict of humble birth and little or no education crushed by brutality and manual labour.
In his introduction, Cecil Hadgraft traces the author's own chequered career - an amazing sequence of misfortunes and miscalculations both before and after his twenty-four hour reprieve from the gallows, and particularly significant for the assessment and appreciation of a novel known to be largely autobiographical.

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1830

About the author

Henry Savery was a convict transported to Port Arthur, Tasmania and Australia's first novelist. It is generally agreed that his writing is more important for its historical value than its literary merit.

Reviews

[Colin Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Australian History this is a very good read - you can tell it is a personal and painful journey for the writer and helps to fill in gaps that most other historical accounts fail to. It takes a little while to get used to the writing style but perservere and it is well worth it.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great work of literature but, as Australia's first real novel, a pivotal moment - and a great historical document!