The celebrated George Barrington

"This is a book about the Barrington books, the main aim of which is to describe, understand and clarify a body of work that has long been regarded as a curiosity of early Australian literature. But in a broader sense it is also an inquiry into the print culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and, more particularly, the somewhat shadowy world of popular publishing in this period. It is hoped, then, that this book will prove useful not only to book collectors and scholars of Australian history, but also to those interested in the history of the book and print culture of the Romantic period more generally. It is also hoped that through an exploration of how this particular figure the celebrated George Barrington was created and commodified by the press, it may be possible to gain some new insights into the broader processes by which the culture of celebrity is produced and consumed. The impact of celebrity in defining or redefining the cultural artefact, of course, is a theme that resonates as powerfully through our own time as it did in the age of George Barrington"--Provided by publisher.