Handfasted

Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image

A pioneering work of Australian feminist fiction, Handfasted presents a bold utopian vision set in a hidden Scottish-descended colony in North America, where women hold equal rights and marriage is a trial arrangement a handfasting that either partner may dissolve after a year and a day. Written in the 1870s but withheld from publication for over a century on the grounds that it was too democratic and too socialistic, the novel chronicles the journey of a modern woman transported into this egalitarian society, using the contrast to argue passionately for women’s autonomy, suffrage, and social reform. Spence’s tone is earnest yet quietly radical, weaving sharp social commentary into an accessible narrative that challenges the rigid Victorian conventions of her era. Handfasted stands as a remarkable artifact of progressive thought, illustrating how far ahead of her time one of Australia’s most important writers truly was.