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CHAMIER George : Philosopher Dick, Adventures and Contemplations of a New Zealand Shepherd

T Fisher Unwin, London, 1891

8vo - over 7? - 9? tall. heavy book may require extra postal charges, first edition, wine coloured cloth with decorative titling to upper board in black, corners lightly frayed and bumped, backstrip sunned to gold brown with gilt titling, DNZB states this was published anonymously but this copy has Chamier on the spine (blocked) but not the title page of the book, boards faded, spine ends frayed, lower joint rubbed in parts, original chocolate endpapers intact both hinges cracked but tight, 569pp internally very tidy, untrimmed edges, a few margins are a little untidy from careless opening but not intruding to the text, large heavy 8vo, " Chamier spent only a decade in New Zealand, but from that stay emerged what may be considered the best New Zealand novels of the nineteenth century: Philosopher Dick: adventures and contemplations of a New Zealand shepherd (published anonymously in 1891), and A south-sea siren: a novel descriptive of New Zealand life in the early days (1895). The two novels, which are probably semi-autobiographical, form a single extended narrative that focuses on the education of a young gentleman immigrant, Richard Raleigh. Raleigh begins as a na?e idealist, somewhat on the model of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones. Through a series of experiences, first as a cadet shepherd on Marino station and then as clerk to the district council and the local magistrate's court at Sunnydowns (a town probably modelled on Leithfield), he undergoes the usual Victorian intellectual battle of faith and doubt, shaken by Darwinism, and emerges with a stoicism of the kind expressed in Chamier's later volume of essays, War and pessimism and other studies (1911). In the process he undergoes a political and social education about New Zealand. When he came he 'foolishly expected that a new country, wide and bountiful, oppressed with no burdens, hampered with no restrictions, but fresh and fair from the hands of God, would afford much happier conditions of life and progress' than he had found in the Old World. What he discovered was that 'human nature remains always the same, and the Englishman, away from his native land, carries with him all the customs, tastes, and prejudices, and most of the vices of his nationality', so that life in New Zealand was but 'a rather servile imitation of life in the Mother Country', with 'little or no attempt to revert to a purer, simpler and more primitive mode of existence'. Raleigh also undergoes an education about himself. He begins as one of the 'unconscious blind' who 'cannot see that they cannot see', at least 'where their own intentions and sentiments are concerned', and then, especially through his chastening experience with the 'siren' Celia Wylde and her unscrupulous friends (recreated by Stevan Eldred-Grigg in The siren Celia , 1989) comes to recognise and rue his own folly and self-deception. He emerges a more mature individual, and is accepted by the virtuous Alice Seymour. After seeming to have lost his name, his job and his property, he finds that he has really lost but little, and goes off to Wellington to a new life as a journalist. The loose, capacious form of the novels, based on that of eighteenth century novels of education, allows Chamier to include a variety of materials including letters, a diary, philosophical discussions, inset stories and detachable episodes and vignettes. The resulting structure not only expresses Chamier's curious and wide-ranging mind but also gives a comprehensive, comic and critical picture of Canterbury in the 1860s. Christchurch is seen as 'absolutely wanting in all the attractions of a refined civilisation, the beauties of art, or the charms of old associations'; its people, 'without interest in everything except their progress', animated by 'a humdrum, bustling, and practical spirit servilely devoted to progress and utility '. Narrow materialism is complemented by a doubtful business morality devoted to land speculation and the fleecing of new chums, while colonial politics is not a noble experiment but a 'pitiable exhibition' evoking disgust. Social life is marked by hard drinking - 'the besetting curse of the whole community' - and petty, malicious gossip. The picture is not entirely dark: the Seymour family offer an attractive portrait of virtuous rural retirement, but this is shown to be atypical. The general tone is one of good-humoured criticism. Among the novels of early colonisation, Chamier's present perhaps the fullest and most critical picture." Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Book Condition: Good. Binding: Decorative Cloth. Jacket: No Jacket

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