Tikera, or, Children of the Queen of Oceania = Dzieci Królowej Oceanii.

Auckland: Auckland University Press ; Oxford University Press, 1972. xxvi, 311 p.: map.; 23 cm.. Very good(-) to good plus copy in a spine-sunned edge-worn jacket with small chip to bottom front corner, now housed in archival mylar. Hardcover. ISBN: 0196476259; 9780196476254

Uncommon in the US. Translated from the Polish original. New Zealand Fiction; 5. [series]. Historical novel set in New Zealand in the 1860s. Polish ed. first published: Warsaw: Gebethner and Wolff, 1877. This ed. translated from that published: Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1956. Noted in Bagnall's New Zealand National Bibliography" (NZNB). ¶ 

"Novels hitherto published in [this series] have all been long out of print. Some were never widely read, even when first published. All, however, have had a reputation among students of New Zealand literature. "Tikera" has not. It was published as long ago as 1877, but virtually no New Zealander has read it. It is not mentioned in any history of New Zealand literature. Although it is the best New Zealand novel of its period, it had no influence on the development of writing in this country. Why? Because "Tikera" was written, and published, in Polish. This is the first translation into English. A Polish novel about New Zealand might have been a mere curiosity. Tkera is much more. Through the candid eyes of a young Polish seaman we see the country at the time of the Anglo-Maori Wars. We see the dingy waterfront pubs in the old-looking young town of Auckland, life in a Maori village which was debating whether to join the war, a New Plymouth dividing its attention between military campaigns and dubious commercial speculation, the unlovely attitudes of settlers towards the Maoris, and especially towards Maori women. Although Wisniowski was in New Zealand in the 1860s, he did not visit the war districts. This part of his novel is imaginary. But he knew his Anglo-Saxon colonists and draws an often irreverent view of their society." -- Inside front cover." ¶

New Zealand fiction -- 19th century. Fiction. Polynesia, 1853-1876 New Zealand -- History -- 1853-1876 -- Fiction. Nouvelle-Zélande -- Histoire -- 1853-1876 -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. New Zealand. Identifier: Fiction in Polish, 1795-1919 English texts Wiśniowski, Sygurd, 1841-1892. McEldowney, Dennis, 1926-2003. Podstolski, Jerzy Henryk.