Robbery Under Arms, Rolf Boldrewood
Robbery Under Arms, Rolf Boldrewood
List: $34.95 | Sale: $23.77
Club: $17.47

Robbery Under Arms
A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia

Author: Rolf Boldrewood

Narrator: Gregory Dwyer

Unabridged: 19 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/25/2025

Synopsis

Robbery Under Arms, together with Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life, is considered to be one of the seminal Australian novels of the nineteenth century. It is a barnstorming yarn, delivered in the first person by one Dick Marston, a vigorous and basically honourable young man, who is lured into crime due to unfavourable circumstances. One of the major themes is the importance of proper mentorship for youth. Marston’s main mentors are his troubled father and the dashing bushranger, Captain Starlight, and Marston’s association with them leads to personal disaster. In the end, Marston finds his own way to honour and respectability, and settles down with a faithful woman, who has patiently waited for him to complete a lengthy period of imprisonment. While the narrative reflects social views of the time which may be considered unacceptable today, particularly in regard to indigenous people and women, the author’s cheerfulness and his expectation that a person’s better qualities will eventually find expression remain attractive to the reader of today.

About Rolf Boldrewood

Thomas Alexander Browne (1826–1915) was a prolific Australian author who used the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood. Many of his stories contain fascinating descriptions of urban and rural life in Australia prior to Federation in 1901. 

About Gregory Dwyer

Gregory Dwyer is a New Zealand–born Australian voice actor. He spent twenty-four years working internationally in theatre, film, television, and radio, before an eighteen-year stint as a Forensic Crime Scene Examiner. He has now returned to voice acting, specializing in audiobooks.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Amy on November 02, 2018

For a story about bushrangers this sure was boring. Also racist and sexist, even for the time period it was written in. I believe at one point the narrator says that women need to be starved like dogs to appreciate what they have. Also apparently women are only capable of experiencing two emotions w......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on May 30, 2016

My impression of Robbery Under Arms is one of appreciation that such a book exists. Boldrewood (or Browne, as that was his actual name) captures the setting and spirit of colonial Australia during the middle of the 19th Century, as it happened. The book captures the feeling of that remote colony and......more

Goodreads review by Lyndal on May 01, 2019

Unexpectedly wonderful! I just adored this book about the exploits and fates of a group of bushrangers in New South Wales in mid-nineteenth century Australia. I found the characters, the story, the portrayal of colonial Australia and the language of the time mesmerising. The bulk of the action takes......more

Goodreads review by Hubert on October 14, 2022

Zapomniałem ocenić w zeszłym tygodniu...😁......more

Goodreads review by Frumenty on May 27, 2019

"Robbery under arms is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood, It was first published in serialized form by The Sydney Mail between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in London in 1888. It was abridged into a single volume in 1889 a......more

Quotes

“A classic, which for life and dash and zip and colour—all of a period—has no match in all Australian letters.” Thomas Wood, Australian Dictionary of Biography

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