The Australian Experience : Robbery Under arms

Robbery Under Arms is action packed and full of adventure, gathering up the reader in its movement and energy like the horses and their riders that sweep across the landscape. With breathtaking descriptions of natural scenery and a plot full of suspense and colourful characters, it will remain a favourite among colonial novels. Captain Starlight, Dick Marston and the others have become part of the Australian mythical language. By the 1880s several of his longer stories had been published as serials in local and overseas papers. Robbery Under Arms appeared in this form in the Sydney Mail during 1882 and 1883. Demand for reprints grew until the story was released in London as a three-volume book in 1888, and edited down to one volume for another edition a year later.