(issued December 1999)
WALLACE KIRSOP, Foreword
DIANNE REILLY, Comte Lionel de Chabrillan (1818-1858) First Consul for France at Melbourne (1852-1858)
Gabriel-Paul-Josselin-Lionel de Guigues de Moreton de Chabrillan began his diplomatic career in Copenhagen in 1838, lost his fortune gambling, spent some time in Australia as a miner and was then appointed ‘Honorary Consul, Second Class’ at Melbourne. Although Melbourne society ostracised his wife and former mistress, Céleste Vénard (the notorious Parisienne “La Mogador”), it is clear that he himself earned their respect. His grave in Melbourne General Cemetery was restored by ISFAR members in 1994.
Keywords: Comte Lionel de Chabrillan, consul, Céleste Vénard, “La Mogador”
JOHN DRURY, Nicolas Émile Mouchette, 1838-1884, Acting Consul de France
The story of Nicolas Emile Mouchette, Chancelier and Acting Consul at the French Consulate in Melbourne. He arrived in Australia in 1881 and died there in 1884. His wife Berthe later founded the Alliance Française de Melbourne.
Keywords: Nicolas Emile Mouchette, Chancelier, Acting Consul, Berthe Mouchette, Alliance Française de Melbourne
WALLACE KIRSOP, Edmond About in Australia
French novelist Edmond About was once familiar to many Australians. A member of the Académie française, his novel, Roi des montagnes, was studied by French students in Australia during the late nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries.
Keywords: Wallace Kirsop, Edward About, Roi des montagnes, Academie française, Leaving Certificate
WALLACE KIRSOP, R.S. Ross on French Literature
Robert Samuel Ross, ‘a socialist with strong literary leanings’ produced a Catalogue of Books for Radicals (c 1919) which included book notes. Wallace Kirsop sees similarities between this catalogue and Andrade’s Catalog of Books for Radicals issued by William Charles Andrade of 201 Bourke Street, Melbourne (‘anarchists and booksellers’). R. S. Ross considers that a good novel can be read as a ‘living picture’ of an event or movement and reviews a number of novels by French authors such as Flaubert, Erckmann-Chatrian, Alexandra Dumas, Anatole France, Victor Hugo and Eugène Sue.
Keywords: R. S. Ross, William Charles Andrade, Andrade’s Bookshop, anarchist bookseller, French authors, Melbourne’s Radical Bookshops
BOOK REVIEW
Marcel Chicoteau, Bibliographia et obiter dicta (1939-1989), reviewed by Wallace Kirsop