Parjumouf is one of Almqvist's first published works, written at a time in his life when his main influence was the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This novella, a story within a story, relates the strange, romantic tale of Parjumouf, a woman who lives in the earthly paradise that is to be found on the western slopes of the recently-crossed Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Almqvist's storyteller, who recounts the adventure to a gathering in a Bordeaux wine merchant's, refers to Australia as both New Holland and Ulimaroa, a term Almqvist had borrowed from the Swedish geographer Daniel Djurberg, and which originally derives from the account of Cook's first voyage.