[William Harvey (or Harvie?) Christie]. - A Love Story. By a Bushman.

Sydney, G.W. Evans 1841. Octavo, two volumes bound together in contemporary half calf (front cover detached and most of the spine gone). An old repair to the title page, a bit foxed but pretty good; one leaf was creased while printing, not significant.The author's daughter's copy but presented not by him but her husband, Charles Kemp of Kemp and Fairfax, printers of the book. It is inscribed "Stella Kemp, 1841. C.K." ¶ Only edition of this Sydney fiction incunabulum. The Australasian Chronicle (August 7 1841) gave this a lot of space, mostly due to the duty to "encourage the first blossoms of Australian literaure" and pads it out with lengthy quotes. The reviewer strives for kindness but in the end we're left with the notion that he was most impressed by an elegant two volume novel (price one guinea) being produced in Sydney. The Sydney Herald of the same date is equally generous with space padded by quotes, more generous about the author's ability, given a thoughtfully judicious approach. The reviewer protests a bit much that they know nothing about the author's identity; perhaps necessary as Kemp may well have written the review.First into print were The Australian and The Sydney Gazette (both August 5) each with a one paragraph notice of the book in which more words praise the book's production than the writing. I didn't find a review in either paper.The Port Phillip Gazette (October 2) is way less encouraging about the author's abilities but still devotes three quarters of a page, thanks to padding, to the book. At the end we learn that what is reviewed is volume one and I realised that none of the reviews suggest that volume two was opened and that no-one remarks on the Australian episodes. Nor does any reviewer mention the existence of another Australian novel - despite the notice in the Chronicle the day before their review telling us that this was the second novel from the Australian press and both were by the same author. The dutiful Port Phillip Gazeete did return with volume two (October 2) but it's hard to tell whether anyone but the typesetter read much of the book.A writer to The Temperance Advocate (September 15 1841) wrote rapturously about the book but he hadn't read it and was under the impression that it was the first ever Australian novel. Forgivable, since the Advocate had said so on August 11. Word, at least, of the book had reached Hobart by the end of August but I found no review. I would have guessed that Hobart patriots rushed to refute Sydney's claim to the first novel. Not so.H.M. Green condemned this as "rubbish" in passing, so passing that it wasn't worth indexing. You can find it on p280 of his History of Australian Literature. Green was furious about the amount of space given to our Love Story by Barton in his Literature in New South Wales (1866) but that may have more to do with it being Barton's first fiction entry and that he had read it. It's not a kind review.This is maybe the only copy I've traced that wasn't a gift to someone valuable to his career.

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