I can never warm to Carnegie, who gives me the impression that his life of privilege was the prime motivation to "rough it" in Australia, a country where very real issues of race, class, and gender were perpetuated throughout the 1800s. But Spinifex and Sand deserves a place on the Top 20 works of the 19th century in this country nevertheless, for what it reveals about the strange, often exhilarating life of those who dared to jump off the map and into the Australian unknown, in an era when such a thing was a genuine risk. (It's still not highly recommended today!) ( )

A study in sand and heat and thirst and aborigines ( )

Valuation 12/8/08 $2500