Colymbia

TitleColymbia
Year for Search1873
Authors[Dudgeon], [Robert Ellis](1820-1904)
Date Published1873
PublisherTrübner and Company
Place PublishedLondon
KeywordsEnglish author, Male author, Scottish author
Annotation

A mixture of satire and reform in a society located under water. Given the mixture, it is difficult to be sure what parts the author means seriously. The author was a friend of Samuel Butler, and the book was his response to Erewhon

Additional Publishers

Extract illus. Mark Toner. Shoreline of Infinity, no. 9 (Autumn 2017): 91-99, with an introduction “SF Caledonia” by Monica Burns (85-90), with a photograph of Dudgeon on 87. 

Holding Institutions

L, LLL

Author Note

Often listed as the first Australian science fiction novel, but, as Graham Stone says in his Notes on Australian Science Fiction (Sydney, NSW, Australia: Graham Stone, 2001), 89, Dudgeon (1820-1904), a homeopathic physician born and educated in Scotland and practicing medicine in London, had no Australian connections. He was one of the leaders of homeopathy at the time and served as president of both the British Homeopathic Society and the International Homeopathic Congress and was editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy.

Full Text

1873 [Dudgeon, Robert Ellis] (1820-1904). Colymbia. London: Trübner and Company. Extract illus. Mark Toner. Shoreline of Infinity, no. 9 (Autumn 2017): 91-99, with an introduction “SF Caledonia” by Monica Burns (85-90), with a photograph of Dudgeon on 87. L, LLL

A mixture of satire and reform in a society located under water. Given the mixture, it is difficult to be sure what parts the author means seriously. The author was a friend of Samuel Butler, and the book was his response to Erewhon. Often listed as the first Australian science fiction novel, but, as Graham Stone says in his Notes on Australian Science Fiction (Sydney, NSW, Australia: Graham Stone, 2001), 89, Dudgeon, a homeopathic physician born and educated in Scotland and practicing medicine in London, had no Australian connections. He was one of the leaders of homeopathy at the time and served as president of both the British Homeopathic Society and the International Homeopathic Congress and was editor of the British Journal of Homeopathy.