Robbery Under Arms is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pen name Rolf Boldrewood. It was first published in serialised form by The Sydney Mail between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in London in 1888. It was abridged into a single volume in 1889 as part of Macmillan's one-volume Colonial Library series and has not been out of print since.
It is considered a classic of Australian colonial literature, alongside Marcus Clarke's convict novel For the Term of his Natural Life (1876) and Fergus Hume's mystery crime novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), and has inspired numerous adaptations in film, television and theatre. It has been described as "once upon a time... the most blue-chip piece of IP in Australian showbusiness."
Contents
Plot introduction
Writing in the first person, the narrator Dick Marston tells the story of his life and loves and his association with the notorious bushranger Captain Starlight, a renegade from a noble English family. Set in the bush and goldfields of Australia in the 1850s, Starlight's gang, with Dick and his brother Jim's help, sets out on a series of escapades that include cattle theft and robbery under arms.
Plot summary
The book begins with Dick sitting in gaol, with just under one month before his scheduled execution for his crimes. He is given writing material, and begins documenting his life's story.
He starts with his childhood, with a father (Ben) who is prone to violence, particularly when he has been drinking; his mother, his sister (Aileen) and brother, Jim. He documents his first exposure to his father's crimes, the theft of a red calf, and the disapproval of this crime by his mother, who says she thought he had given up stealing since the theft which led to his transportation as a convict from England. Dick's first active involvement in crime, comes where the brothers choose to go cattle duffing (stealing), even though an offer of solid, honest work had been made with neighbour and friend, George Storefield. The divergent lives of the brothers to that of George is a recurring theme of the book from this point forward, as they continue to meet up at different points throughout the story's course. This first theft includes their introduction to Captain Starlight, his Aboriginal assistant, Warrigal, and their hideaway, Terrible Hollow.
Further thefts follow, leading up to the brazen theft of 1000 head, driven overland to Adelaide with Starlight. After the success of this adventure, the brothers "lie low" in Melbourne, where they meet the sisters, Kate and Jeanie Morrison. The brothers return to home for Christmas, leading to incarceration and trial of Dick and Starlight. (The magistrate chooses to refer to Starlight only by this nickname, at the Captain's request). Warrigal helps Dick and Starlight escape to Terrible Hollow. The gang later has its first stage holdup.
The brothers then move to the Turon goldfields. Their prosperity through honest, hard work gives them the chance for escape from the country to start a new life overseas. Jim is re-united with Jeanie Morrison and marries her. Dick meets Kate Morrison again, but her tumultuous nature leads her, in an angry mood, to alert the police to their presence, and they narrowly escape capture and return to the safety of Terrible Hollow.
Seeing no alternative to crime, the gang joins forces with a soon- to- be rival Dan Moran and his friends to stage a major hold up of the armed, escorted stagecoach leaving the goldfields. The robbery is a success, with the members splitting up after sharing the gold takings. Starlight's crew hears word of Moran's planned home invasion of a police informant named Mr Whitman, at a time when Mr Whitman was known to be absent. Marston and Starlight intervene, forcing Moran and his men to leave, thus preventing further harm to the women present and the home being burnt down at the end of the night.
Characters in Robbery Under Arms
Dick Marston: The narrator, an Australian bushman.
Jim Marston: His brother.
Aileen Marston: Dick and Jim's sister.
Mrs Marston: Ben's wife and the mother of Dick, Jim and Aileen.
Ben Marston: Dick, Jim and Aileen's father, a Lincolnshire man transported for poaching.
Jeanie Morrison/"Jeanie Marston": One of two sisters that the Marston brothers meet in Melbourne while "lying low". Later marries Jim. She is Kate's sister.
Kate Morrison: One of two sisters that the Marston brothers meet in Melbourne while "lying low". She is Jeanie's sister and Jim's sister-in-law.
George Storefield: Neighbour and friend of the Marston family.
Gracy Storefield: George's sister and Dick's wife after serving his prison sentence.
Captain Starlight: An honourable bushranger.
Warrigal: Starlight's Aboriginal assistant.
Rainbow: Starlight's horse.
Mr Whitman: A police informant.
Mr Knightley: The goldfield commissioner.
Mrs Knightley: Mr Knightley's wife.
Miss Falkland: A woman whom Starlight and his crew rescues when Dan Moran leads his men in a home invasion of Mr Whitman.
Allusions/references from other works
The early film adaptations of the book are referenced in the title of Kathryn Heyman's 2006 novel, Captain Starlight's Apprentice.
Major themes
The book, written in first person narrative, contains repeated regrets for the narrator's crimes, highlighting how seemingly minor crimes led to an inescapable life of further crimes. These are contrasted with the success of Dick's hardworking childhood friend, who becomes a successful landowner, merchant and magistrate.
The themes of honour and loyalty are repeated throughout the story, which eventually leads to Dick's redemption from hanging and, having served his time in gaol, a presumed peaceful, safe and legal life.
As a ripping yarn, originally told in periodical installments, the story mostly centres around the lovable villains, who are adventurers and thieves but nevertheless with high moral standards and, in some ways, trapped by circumstances of their own making.
Literary significance and criticism
A reviewer in The West Australian in 1889 noted its authenticity: "The book is written in an original and thrillingly interesting manner, and being from the pen of an Australian author we are spared those ludicrous mistakes which English writers so frequently fall into when describing things Antipodean."
English author Thomas Wood called the novel "a classic, which for life and dash and zip and colour — all of a period — has no match in all Australian letters."
Robbery Under Arms is cited as an important influence on Owen Wister's 1902 novel The Virginian, widely regarded as the first western.
In her literary study, Australian Classics, Jane Gleeson-White noted that the book's use of the "colonial vernacular" bared comparison with Mark Twain's in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: "As with Twain's novel, it is the brilliant vitality and intimacy of Dick's narrative voice, as well as the wild adventures he has with his brother Jim, Starlight and the women they love, that make Robbery Under Arms such lively reading."
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
In his December 1888 Preface to the New Edition, Browne wrote:
"...though presented in the guise of fiction, this chronicle of the Marston family must not be set down by the reader as wholly fanciful or exaggerated. Much of the narrative is literally true, as can be verified by official records."
Although bushranger Frank Pearson claimed Captain Starlight was based on him, Boldrewood claims his character was a composite, based in part on Harry Redford but primarily on Thomas Law, known as Captain Midnight. The cattle robbery follows the lifting of about a thousand head by Redford from Bowen Downs Station in 1870. Some of the exploits recounted are based on actual incidents involving bushrangers Daniel Morgan, Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and John Gilbert, although not all factual events which contributed to the novel took place during the period in which the novel is set. Terrible Hollow, the gang's bush hideaway, is drawn from a sunken valley reported in the Gwydir district.
Adaptations
1890: Popular stage melodrama by Garnet Walch and Alfred Dampier.
1907: Robbery Under Arms - black and white silent film, one of Australia's earliest features, produced by Charles MacMahon.
1907: Robbery Under Arms - silent film made by J and N Tait, who had made The Story of the Kelly Gang
1911: Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road - another black and white silent film made by Dampier's daughter, Lily, and her husband, Alfred Rolfe.
1920: Robbery Under Arms - silent film written and directed by actor Kenneth Brampton, who also played the role of Captain Starlight.
1941: Robbery Under Arms, adaptation of the book for BBC radio
1943: Robbery Under Arms, the first time the book had been adapted for Australian radio. The adaptation was written by Peter Creswell and directed by Charles Wheeler. It ran for nine episodes and was broadcast throughout Australian on the ABC network, and featured Mary Hoskin, Aileen Harpur, Marion Johns, and Trilby Clark.
1957: Robbery Under Arms - sound and technicolour film version for the British Rank Organisation, directed by Jack Lee, starring Peter Finch as Captain Starlight.
1985: Robbery Under Arms - film and mini-series starring Steven Vidler as Dick Marston and Sam Neill as Captain Starlight, released in separate versions for screen and television. Produced by Jock Blair and directed by Donald Crombie and Ken Hannam.
Some attempts to adapt the novel in the 1920s and 30s were hindered by the bushranger ban. It has been called "the great lost film" of Ken G. Hall's career.
Release details
1888, First edition, England, Remington and Co Publishers, Hardback (3 vols.)
2006, edited by Paul Eggert and Elizabeth Webby, Australia, University of Queensland Press, Academy Editions of Australian Literature, ISBN 978-0-7022-3574-0, Pub date 31 October 2006, Hardback and paperback. (Full text of original serialised version, including the 29,000 words missing from later publications.)
2023, Standard EBooks (Full text of original version, 244,712 words)