Reproduction of the original.

Caroline Leakey, writing as Oliné Keese, published her first and only novel, The Broad Arrow, in 1859. It tells the story of Maida Gwynnham, a young middle-class woman lured into committing a forgery by her deceitful lover, Captain Norwell, and then wrongly convicted of infanticide. The novel’s title describes the arrow that was stamped onto government property, including the clothes worn by convict – a symbol of shame and incarceration. With its ‘fallen woman’ protagonist, its gothic undertones and its exploration of the social and moral implications of the penal system, this little-known novel gives an insight into a significant chapter of Australian history from a uniquely female perspective. In this new critical edition, editor Jenna Mead restores material that was cut when the novel was reissued in a radically abridged version in 1886, restoring for the first time in over a century the complete original text of Leakey’s important work.

In a career spanning over 50 years, Morley Roberts wrote hundreds of short stories and was one of the most successful operators in the Victorian-Edwardian literary marketplace. His remarkable imagination and willingness to experiment resulted in tales of sailors on the high seas, adventurers in the Australian bush, cowboys in the wild west, saloon society in frontier towns, tramps on the railroad, miners in the mountains of British Columbia, farmers on the South African veld, and writers in men’s clubs. Whatever the setting, Roberts evokes the dangers and challenges his characters face. With an eye for detail and an unerring skill in capturing the vernacular of the desperate characters he portrays, Roberts leads the reader into vividly-drawn masculine worlds. Markus Neacey acknowledges Roberts’s special contribution to the British short story by selecting the best examples from his extensive work. This edition includes: Critical introductionExtensive explanatory footnotesAuthor biographySuggestions for further readingSelection of contemporary reviewsExtracts from Roberts's interviews with The IdlerExtracts from Roberts's A Tramp's Note-bookThe full text of Roberts's lecture, The Sea in Fiction