1898 By Still Harder Fate by Nancy Lloyd-Tayler Antique Australian Fiction Book

Across its five parts—Our Lives, So Far Apart, Too Late, Thy Heart Is Mine and Adieu—Dolly's story develops into a romance shaped by separation, misunderstanding and unfortunate timing. The title is drawn from Matthew Arnold's poem Too Late, in which lovers meet only after fate has placed happiness beyond their reach, foreshadowing the novel's increasingly poignant course. Beneath its romantic plot, Lloyd-Tayler questions contemporary expectations of feminine accomplishment, gentility and marriage, particularly the assumption that every "lady" should naturally possess flawless domestic and social abilities.

Published in Melbourne by George Robertson & Co. in 1898, this first edition is an uncommon example of nineteenth-century Australian women's fiction and has since attracted scholarly interest for its treatment of gender, class and colonial society. The volume retains its original red cloth binding and distinctive George Robertson patterned endpapers; notably, many of its leaves remain uncut, indicating that substantial portions have never been opened for reading. A desirable survivor of early Australian literary publishing, combining considerable scarcity with an unusually revealing view of women's lives and expectations in the 1890s."