Art and research creating layered characterisation

I think I’d always assumed they were all more like the French explorers, who drew from nature, rather than killing and preserving to take back trophies for museums or individual rich collectors. The detail Ashley provided of the sheer number of specimens killed shocked me. One of the biggest insights for me from the novel was the act of collecting itself and what was entailed in the Gould expeditions. The French expeditions predated the Gould’s. Interestingly of course, they also only visited Australia, never ‘claiming’ it as their colony. I attended a lecture and was interested to learn that the French didn’t kill and return stuffed specimens for benefactors as the English (Gould et al) did, they drew and painted them only. As an aside, while in Launceston, I saw ‘ The Art of Science – Nicholas Baudin’s Voyagers 1800-1804’ an art exhibition of French explorers of Australia and their artworks from their voyages. The character of Elizabeth at least, shows remorse for such savage waste.Ĭollecting: a construct of time, place and ideologyįortuitously, I read the book while on holidays in Tasmania, where it was partly set. The unnecessary deaths of Australian animals, captured for the return voyage to England, was particularly hard to bare and written so deftly as to ride that fine balance between the ‘enlightened’ of the modern reader and outdated, immoral 19th century modes of behaviour. That they were all treated as specimens to be used as the English saw fit, without any qualms of conscience. To this reader there were parallels between the treatment of the native animals in Australia and that of the Aboriginals.

It allows Ashley to offer criticism of the practice through the character and also to have Elizabeth liberate some prized captives. This stance also allows Elizabeth to voice other ideas narratively, in keeping with modern views regarding the abundant specimens captured during her husband’s expeditions. This depiction encourages readers to identify with Elizabeth, despite the large historical gap and her added assistance of servants, governess and cooks (and even mother and relation to look after assorted children while the Gould’ voyaged to Australia).

Elizabeth is a worker, mother, provider, lover – all pre-modern obstetrics, telephone, and even ocean liner. It was a clever strategy of Ashley’s to imagine her heroine, Elizabeth Gould, in a modern way, as a woman much like today’s professional mother who had to do it all.

The Birdman's Wife by Melissa Ashley