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This volume is a romance set against the backdrop of the wilds of Australia. Dick Halwood meets up with the Hatter, who tells the story of a strange land in the Australian desert where an odd yellow woman lives, ruling a band of aged pygmies. Tor Ymmothe, the yellow woman, is the last Queen of Lemuria. She has been condemned to live alone for thousands of years in the caves, paying the price for the arrogance of her race which was destroyed. She guards the body of a young princess, who has lain in a comatose state for thousands of years, waiting for her own true love to appear. Halwood discovers where the princess' body lies. Upon seeing her face, he learns she is the woman who had appeared to him in a vision. Join Halwood in his adventurous quest for true love.
Notes
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'In Firth Scott's work, the narrator Dick Halwood discovers the remains of the fabled Lemuria (a civilisation said to have preceded Atlantis) somewhere in the Australian desert. Lemuria was once a place of magnificent palaces, populated by "a race which was on a higher plane of civilisation and culture than our own". It had since, however, fallen into stunning decline' (Melissa Bellanta, 'Fabulating the Australian Desert,' n. pag.).
In The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Everett Bleiler writes: 'Exuberant, somewhat ludicrous semi-juvenile adventure romance ... Motifs include a lost race of Lemurians who live around an extinct volcano; a bunyip - a monster with a human head, crocodile body, and assorted appendages; a sleeping beauty who awakens but later crumbles into dust; a curse laid on the land by a mistreated missionary; semi-vampirism and bondage; alchemical gold; and a ghost' (p. 1450).
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Further Reference:
- Locke, George. A Spectrum of Fantasy : The Bibliography and Biography of a Collection of Fantastic Literature (1980), p.191.
- Stone, Graham. Notes on Australian Science Fiction (2001), pp.99-100.
- Locke, George. A Spectrum of Fantasy : The Bibliography and Biography of a Collection of Fantastic Literature (1980), p.191.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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The World of The Last Lemurian: A Westralian Romance, by G Firth Scott
2022
single work
essay
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 150 2022; -
The Last Lemurian : A Late Nineteenth-Century Fairy Tale in the Australian Outback
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Fantastic of the Fin de Siècle 2016; (p. 223-242) -
Portals to a New World : H.P. Lovecraft Ventures to the Great Sandy Desert
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Telling Stories : Australian Life and Literature 1935–2012 2013; (p. 16-22) -
An Apocalyptic Map : New Worlds and the Colonization of Australia
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 23-53) 'This chapter examines the map that preceded, and eventually superseded, the territory of Australia, in order to demonstrate that early maps of the south land established an apocalyptic tradition that still resonates in contemporary fictions. If one reinterprets Jean Baudrillard's comments in the context of colonization and Australia, it is possible to see how European imagination delineated an apocalyptic map of the country before explorers and settlers even arrived, a map that located Australia as a tabula rasa, a blank slate where heaven and hell might equally be feasible. This chapter surveys the dialectic emerging from these confliction visions.' (24)
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Australian Science Fiction : In Search of the 'Feel'
2007-2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 21-22 2007-2008; (p. 65-72)
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Lost and Found Cities and People : In Australia
2001
single work
review
bibliography
biography
— Appears in: Notes on Australian Science Fiction 2001; (p. 96-100)
— Review of The Lost Explorer : An Australian Story 1890 single work novel ; The Savage Queen : A Romance of the Natives of Van Dieman's Land 1891 single work novel ; The Golden Idol : A Tale of Adventures in Australia and New Zealand 1891 single work novel ; The Golden Lake, or, The Marvellous History of a Journey Through the Great Lone Land of Australia 1890 single work novel ; The Valley Council; Or, Leaves from the Journal of Thomas Bateman of Canbelego Station, N.S.W. 1891 single work novel ; The Secret of the Australian Desert 1890 single work children's fiction ; The Fallen Race 1892 single work novel ; Mostyn Stayne 1897 single work novel ; Marooned on Australia : Being the Narration by Diedrich Buys of His Discoveries and Exploits in Terra Australis Incognita about the Year 1630 1896 single work children's fiction ; Adventure of the Broad Arrow : An Australian Romance. 1897 single work novel ; An Australian Bush Track 1896 single work novel ; The Treasure Cave of the Blue Mountains 1898 single work children's fiction ; The Last Lemurian : A Westralian Romance 1896 single work novel ; Eureka 1899 single work novel -
'The Last Lemurian'
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Science-Fiction : The Early Years 1990; (p. 660-661)
— Review of The Last Lemurian : A Westralian Romance 1896 single work novel -
Fabulating the Australian Desert : Australia's Lost Race Romances, 1890-1908
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Philament , April no. 3 2004; - y Mobilising Fictions or, Romancing the Australian Desert, 1890-1908 St Lucia : AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2009 Z1238252 2003 single work criticism 'This paper looks at Australia's "lost race romances", published between 1890 and 1908, so-called because they described the discovery of an unknown race in the middle of the Australian desert...' (Author's abstract)
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Lemuria and Australian Dreams of an Inland Sea
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Lemuria , Winter vol. 1 no. 1 2006; (p. 32-47) Cathcart reads a range of 'Lemurian novels,' examining their 'uncomplicated optimism about the future of White Australia, their trust that the key to that future lay beneath the earth, in the Great Australian Basin, and their attempts to grapple with the deadly impact of colonisation on the Aborigines who resisted' (44). -
Australian Science Fiction : In Search of the 'Feel'
2007-2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Zeitschrift fur Australienstudien , no. 21-22 2007-2008; (p. 65-72) -
An Apocalyptic Map : New Worlds and the Colonization of Australia
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 23-53) 'This chapter examines the map that preceded, and eventually superseded, the territory of Australia, in order to demonstrate that early maps of the south land established an apocalyptic tradition that still resonates in contemporary fictions. If one reinterprets Jean Baudrillard's comments in the context of colonization and Australia, it is possible to see how European imagination delineated an apocalyptic map of the country before explorers and settlers even arrived, a map that located Australia as a tabula rasa, a blank slate where heaven and hell might equally be feasible. This chapter surveys the dialectic emerging from these confliction visions.' (24)
- North West South Australia, Far North South Australia, South Australia,
- Desert,