Pat Moloney
Speaker: Dr Pat Moloney, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory
Book: The New Zealanders
Author: Craik, George Lillie (1798-1866)
Publisher: London: Charles Knight, 1830
Description: iv, 424 p.: 46 ill., 1 map; 18cm.
Series: Library of entertaining knowledge
Notes: “Published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain).” — Added t.p. — Originally issued in two parts intended to be bound together. — Includes an account of John Rutherford’s 10 years’ residence in New Zealand.
“This book fascinates me because between its covers are combined a captivity narrative and a philosophical discussion of ignoble avagery typical of the 1830s. The wood cut illustrations are curious because many are out of place (either by design or accident).”
≈≈≈≈≈
- Robin Skinner
Speaker: Robin Skinner, Lecturer in Architecture
Book: Plans, elevations, sections and details of the Alhambra from drawings taken on the spot in 1834 by Jules Goucy and in 1834 and 1837 by Owen Jones. With a complete translation of the Arabic inscriptions and an historical notice of the kings of Granada from the conquest of that city by the Arabs to the expulsion of the Moors, by Pasqual de Gayangos.
Publisher: London: O.Jones, 1842-45
Description: 2v. illus. (part col.) 60cm.
Notes: Vol.1 has added t.p.: La Alhambra palais…1841. — Chiefly in English and French.
“£7000 – he blew the family fortune…
The content of these immense volumes impresses me with decorative and meticulous documentation of the Alhambra Palace, but so do the circumstances of their production. Owen Jones had to set up his own chromolitheograph press with the help of Day & Hague, and produce these 104 plates over nine years.”
≈≈≈≈≈
Lydia Wevers
Speaker: Dr Lydia Wevers, Director, Stout Research Centre
Book: The Virginian: a horseman of the plains / with illustrations by Arthur I. Keller.
Main author: Wister, Owen (1860-1938)
Publisher: London: Macmillan, 1903.
Description: 504p.
From the Brancepeth Station Library, which was established by the Beetham family for staff on their Wairarapa sheep station in 1884, and presented to Victoria University library in 1966.
“…which I am interested in because it’s the first Western, and has clearly been heavily read by the Brancepeth Stations hands and it’s fascinating to think about why they might have liked it. Also it’s interesting as a forerunner of a huge C20 industry of fiction and films about the West. The Virginian established the conventions we recognise today.”