Huxley, Elspeth. Their Shining Eldorado: A Journey Through Australia

Description

Their Shining Eldorado: A Journey Through Australia
by Elspeth Huxley.

Chatto and Windus, London, 1967.
First Edition, hardback. 383 pp.

Dustjacket painting “Explorers Surprising a Rare Bird” by Donald Friend.

Elspeth Huxley’s intense and vivid “journey through Australia” takes as much anthropological interest in our cities as much as the familiar interior settings of contemporary English travel books. Her elaborate, if somewhat unbelievable, evocation of St George’s League Club as working class paradise where the punters attend balls and dine on: caviar, Lobster, roast duckling, when white wine was still known as hock, is worth the price of this book alone. Her observations on the contradictions of this so-called egalitarian culture and the feudalism that supports the grazier class are also sharp. Less impressive, however, is the un-reflected racism she shows towards the Aboriginal people that you find in books of this kind… An odd book for the armchair travel historian.

Condition: Dustjacket a big ragged but intact, shelf wear to page edges and the odd mark to pages. Overall good.