Tasma — A Woman Novelist of Colonial Australia — and ‘Continental’ Men

Author: PATRICIA CLANCY
Explorations No 30 (Jun 2001): 21-32
https://doi.org/10.62586/WCQX1516

Late nineteenth century Australian novelist, Tasma (Jessie Couvreur), often attracts less attention than her contemporaries Ada Cambridge and Rosa Praed, yet Tasma’s literary input and import have been given more prominence recently with the publication of her biography by Patricia Clarke as well as timely reprints of her work. Clancy gives a lively and generous account of her childhood in Hobart and her fascinating life split between Australia and Europe, which deeply informed her literature. She also explores Tasma’s rich accounts of the ‘Continental’ men she came across.

Keywords: Tasma, Jessie Couvreur, Piper of Piper’s Hill, nineteenth century literature, continental men, women writers, colonial Australia