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‘Marvellous Melbourne’ : Image of a Colonial Metropolis

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Other Capitals of the Nineteenth Century

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature ((PMEL))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the Australian city of Melbourne, which, within a few decades of its founding in 1836, became one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the British Empire. The author provides an overview of the city’s history and discusses contemporary journalistic and novelistic representations of life in the colony. The primary object of analysis is the image of the city that emerges from these materials. An image of both modernity and historicality, progress and destruction, this image—which bears the title of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’—has persistently beguiled the city’s visitors and inhabitants, but in the final analysis reveals the colonial violence on which it is premised.

Many thanks to Daniel Villegas Vélez for comments on the draft.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

    Timothy Chandler

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  1. Timothy Chandler
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Correspondence to Timothy Chandler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Richard Hibbitt

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Chandler, T. (2017). ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ : Image of a Colonial Metropolis. In: Hibbitt, R. (eds) Other Capitals of the Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57085-7_5

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