Paul Brunton (ed.), Matthew Flinders: personal letters from an extraordinary life,
Sydney, 2002,
Hordern House in association with the State Library of NSW;
ISBN 1 875567 32 1; 262 pp; hardback, RRP $138.00.
The bicentenary of Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia has inspired not only the re-enactment of his feat, fittingly sponsored by the Australian newspaper, but also a spate of publications. In the past five years we have seen the reissue of Ernest Scott's magisterial 1914 biography, two editions of Flinders' correspondence with his wife, a reprint of Flinders' 'biography' of his cat, an account of a previous re-enactment of Bass and Flinders' New South Wales and Tasmanian coastal explorations, and Anthony Brown's Ill-starred Captains, recounting the careers of Flinders and Nicolas Baudin (reviewed in JRAHS, vol 87, pt 2).
This latest offering is edited by the Mitchell Library's Senior Curator, Paul Brunton. His edition of Flinders' letters includes the full text of 110 written between 1794 and his death in 1814.
The book's greatest strength is that it gives voice to a young man of the late eighteenth century, writing in an era when letters took years to reach their recipients. Despite this time-lag Flinders' words are dashed onto paper almost with the immediacy of an email, giving us a sense of his personality which is equally found in the correspondence of his contemporaries Watkin Tench and David Collins.
It is no wonder that Flinders' editor finds himself beguiled by the young man's 'cocksureness', at times verging on audacity, when it is tempered by disingenuousness, Georgian sensibility, skittish humour and literary taste varying from recent novels to Shakespeare and Milton.
The collection includes letters from his six-year captivity in Mauritius, published for the first time, as well as the previously-aired correspondence with his wife Ann. Two items highlighted by the editor for their significance are Flinders' letter to Sir Joseph Banks of 6 September 1800 when the young mariner undertakes to complete the discovery of New Holland, and his achingly personal letter to George Bass of 15-21 February 1800, which was purchased by the Mitchell Library only last year.
Despite the fine production of this volume, with its exquisite colour illustrations, the book has some minor deficiencies. The letters are printed throughout in italics, which is hardly conducive to extended reading, and at times the marginal notes threaten to overwhelm the text. Elsewhere brevity in the notes has rendered them incomprehensible, as on page 50 where a succession of 'see above' notes fails to inform the reader to which of several identically-numbered previous notes he or she is referred.
There is a comprehensive list of illustrations, biographical notes on the main persons mentioned, a bibliography and index. These are somewhat disappointing, as scanty and even inaccurate information has not been checked against the rich resources of the Mitchell Library. The incorrect dates of birth, marriage and death for Elizabeth Paterson are one example.
The State Library's travelling exhibition on Matthew Flinders will be touring state capitals and regional centres throughout 2002.
Anne-Maree Whitaker