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* Contents derived from the Kent Town,Norwood, Payneham & St Peters area,Adelaide - North / North East,Adelaide,South Australia,:Wakefield Press,1995 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
In Clara Morison Spence blends romance and social purpose fiction in what is primarily a domestic novel, and avoids the stereotyped Australian themes of the bush and the bushman. Three elements of her writing which are of significance to 21st century readers are its politico-social purposes, its intertextuality and the author's feminism.
A true 'child of her age', conversant with contemporary ideas, and the development of Australian nationalism, Catherine Martin nevertheless drew on other and older sources, notably the literature of German romanticism and the works of George Eliot.