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Why was Henry Savery’s Quintus Servinton important in the history of Australian novels?
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Australian literature
Australian Aboriginal people dancing during a corroboree.
Henry Savery’s Quintus Servinton, published in 1831, is historically significant as the first Australian novel.1
While the work is strongly autobiographical and utilizes a convict theme to present a form of special pleading, it is noted for not emphasizing the exotic possibilities of the Australian landscape, which became a more common feature in later colonial fiction.1