Why men leave home: The flight of the suburban male in some popular Australian fiction 1910-1950

Late nineteenth-century Australian fiction is rich in naturalistic and tragic disquisitions on marriage; the twentieth century is rich in comic recensions that begin to signal a gradual cultural shift towards reconciliation of gender roles. The 'Boy's Own' world of late nineteenth-century Australian frontier fiction posited a sphere where sterling chaps battle against natural forces, including the feminisation of society, for an independent place in the sun where they can settle down with a 'good' woman to spend their autumn years reflecting on their high adventures. While many of these tales, from 'The recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn' (1859) forward, might strike us as unconscious parody of masculinist concerns, women authors took another turn, frequently subverting the masculine romance.