London: Chapman & Hall.. 1882.
First edition. Two volumes. Small 8vo. 178x115mm. pp. vi, 199 [1bl]; vi, 208. Collates complete although the pagination in signature H of volume is somewhat awry, the printer having mixed up some pages - but the text is all present. Green cloth, brown morocco label on spine, lettered in gilt. Top edges gilt. Decorated, floral endpapers. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Sir William Eden Bart whose ownership inscription is in both volumes. Slight rubbing to corners but otherwise in fine condition throughout. There is the very occasional light pencil mark or annotation in the margins. Rare in commerce and not common institutionally, OCLC recording fifteen copies.
Rosa Campbell Praed (1851-1935) was born into a comfortable Australian colonial family but, on her marriage to Arthur Campbell Praed in 1872, went to live with him on Curtis Island, off Queensland. This was a hard, wild life and so when she began writing fiction, her experiences there shaped her authorial voice. While on Curtis Island, she also became interested in spiritualism and the supernatural. In 1876, following the failure of their farm, the Praeds came to London and Rosa's career as a novelist began. She was successful, popular and feted forming links with Wilde, Kipling and Bram Stoker. Most of her books are set in Australia and reflect the difficulty of the female experience in the tough, masculine outback. She was critical of the colonial world and painted a sympathetic portrait of Aboriginal people. Another common theme was the challenge of the unhappy marriage. Hers was not a good one and, indeed, in Nadine: The Study of a Woman, Praed writes about how a woman thrives when she is unmarried and childless.
