The Broad Arrow
Being Passages from the History of Maida Gwynnham, a Lifer
Caroline Leakey, writing as Oliné Keese, published her first and only novel, The Broad Arrow, in 1859. In this new critical edition, editor Jenna Mead restores material that was cut when the novel was reissued in a radically abridged version in 1886. This restored material is subtly highlighted, allowing interested readers to observe the extent and effect of the 1886 edits, without distracting from the story. It sheds light on the shifting tastes and priorities of the reading public and of publishers in the second half of the nineteenth century, while restoring for the first time in over a century the complete original text of Leakey's important work.
Caroline Woolmer Leakey (Oliné Keese) was born in Exeter, England in 1827. She received limited schooling during her childhood, but read avidly, particularly poetry. While living in Van Diemen’s Land with her sister, she began to write poetry, and she published her only volume of poetry Lyra Australis, or Attempts to Sing in a Strange Land in 1854. She died in 1881.
Jenna Mead is a senior honorary research fellow at the University of Western Australia.
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