ALMQVIST, Carl Jonas Love.
Parjumouf. Saga ifran Nya Holland.
Stockholm, A. Gadelius, 1817.
Duodecimo, 98 pp.; in good condition in a neat modern morocco binding.
An interesting early Swedish fiction set in colonial Australia, here called "Ulimaroa", the term invented by Djurberg in 1780. This scarce fiction with an Australian setting has never been translated into English.
Almqvist (1793-1866) was a prolific Swedish poet and novelist who spent many years in the United States after fleeing the country in 1851 because of accusations against him of fraud and even attempted murder. "Almqvist's earliest books, published in 1814-18, are of extreme rarity. One of these was Parjumouf… apparently the first Swedish novel or short story with an Australian setting" (Du Rietz). A meeting at a wine merchant's in Bordeaux is told of the adventures of the young woman Parjumouf in New Holland, also referred to by Almqvist as Ulimaroa, a name that he had adapted from the Swedish geographer Daniel Djurberg, who had picked it up from the official narrative of Cook's first voyage. Both Cook and Joseph Banks had noted the use of the name in New Zealand (see Du Rietz, Daniel Djurbergs namm på Australien, Ymer, 1961). Parjumouf lives in the fertile country beyond the Blue Mountains, an enchanting land of green pastures and forests of beautiful trees. She takes the travellers to a 'Grand Hall', made of leaves and supported by the trunks of trees, where she habitually confesses her feelings to the spirit Triono. It is here that she tells the story of her life, and of her passion for Dujoumon, the 'most beautiful man on earth'.
Ferguson records only the National Library copy, but the Mitchell Library is known to have acquired a copy in the 1960s.
Du Rietz, Swansea, 92.
