To Australia and back. The metaphor of return in Dickens' David Copperfield and Great Expectations and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure

Abstract

Bernard O'Dowd's poem suggests a range of possible views of Australia. In this article I argue that a change in how the British Empire was perceived during the nineteenth century as a consequence of increased knowledge about the colonies is intimately connected with the possibility of return to the mother country. I concentrate on two major authors, Dickens and Hardy, focusing on The Personal History of David Copperfield (published between 1849 and 1850; hereafter referred to as David Copperfield), Great Expectations (1860-61) and Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895-6).