Michael Wilding

Weird Melancholy: the stories of Marcus Clarke

Introduction

Weird melancholy: the stories of marcus clarke. Explore Marcus Clarke's stories and their presentation in Mackinnon's collection. Analyzes the 'Australian Scenery' passage and the marginal role of landscape descriptions.

Abstract

When Hamilton Mackinnon collected Clarke's stories in The Austral Edition nf the Selected Works nf Marcus Clarke (1890),1 he placed as the first item of the 'Australian Tales and Sketches' section two pages entitled 'Australian Scenery'. This justly famous passage, originally part of the text accompanying reproductions of two paintings, Louis Buvelot's 'Waterpool Near Coleraine' and Nicholas Chevalier's 'The Buffalo Ranges' in Photol?raphs of the Pictures in the National Gallery, Melbourne (1874), had been incorporated into Clarke's preface to Adam Lindsay Gordon's poems in 1876 and frequently reprinted.2 It was certainly not a tale, even if arguably a sketch. But its inclusion set a tone for Clarke's stories that followed, even if it was not the tone that Clarke set. The expected feature of Australian stories by the 1890s was clearly up-country description. Yet when we turn to Clarke's stories, such landscape descriptions are generally marginal. Mackinnon's incorporation of the passage into 'Australian Tales and Sketches' suggests an attempt to supplement the comparative lack of scenic settings in the stories themselves. As the passage demonstrates,

Review

This paper promises a compelling re-evaluation of Marcus Clarke's short fiction, particularly through the lens of its initial editorial presentation. The author immediately establishes a central tension by examining Hamilton Mackinnon's arrangement of Clarke's 'Australian Tales and Sketches' in the 1890 *Austral Edition*. The inclusion of the famous 'Australian Scenery' passage at the outset, despite it not being a tale or typical sketch, is presented as a strategic editorial decision. This initial framing sets the stage for an argument that the popular reception and packaging of Clarke's work may have diverged significantly from his actual authorial practice, inviting a closer look at the stories themselves, beyond their curated introductions. The abstract meticulously unpacks the implications of Mackinnon's editorial choice. It highlights that while 'Australian Scenery' was a well-known piece and perhaps set a certain atmospheric tone, it was not truly representative of the descriptive focus Clarke typically employed. The paper argues that by the 1890s, "up-country description" was an expected feature of Australian stories, creating a perceived gap in Clarke's narratives. In direct contrast to this expectation, Clarke's stories, as the abstract contends, generally feature only marginal landscape descriptions. Thus, Mackinnon's placement of the famous passage appears to be a deliberate attempt to "supplement the comparative lack of scenic settings" in Clarke's original tales, suggesting a perceived deficiency or deviation from contemporary genre norms. This analysis of editorial framing versus authorial content sets the groundwork for a deeper exploration of Clarke's unique narrative distinctiveness, which the title, "Weird Melancholy," hints at. By demonstrating that Clarke deliberately eschewed the prevalent focus on expansive landscape descriptions, the paper positions itself to explore what *did* occupy the narrative space in his stories. One might infer that if not external scenery, then perhaps internal states, psychological landscapes, or particular atmospheric qualities—such as the "weird melancholy"—became central. The paper therefore appears poised to offer a significant contribution to Clarke scholarship, challenging conventional understandings of his work's reception and revealing the potentially idiosyncratic thematic and stylistic choices that truly define his unique voice within Australian literature.

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