Cirrus@Austlit

'Patricia Clancy discusses the life and work of Jesse Catherine Huybers alias Tasma, born 1848 in London who immigrated with her family to Hobart in 1852. Her first marriage to Charles Fraser was an unhappy one and became an important theme in her novels where she contrasted the spendthrift and philandering of Australian men to the sophistication of their European counterparts. After her divorce, she lived in Europe where she married the Belgian politician Auguste Couvreur. Although she never returned to Australia, her novels, which met with some success, are mostly set in the antipodes. After the death of her second husband Tasma took his place as the Brussels correspondent of the London Times until her death in 1897.' (Author's abstract)