Coercive control is far from a new, or even newly recognised, issue. Indeed, Australian authors and wives criticised patriarchal control and authority in marriage from as early as 1880, spotlighting the extensive and intricate ways husbands degraded and destroyed their wives’ resilience and ability to leave a marriage. Taking myriad forms, their writings range from the domestic-realist novels of Rosa Praed and Ada Cambridge to the editorials and short stories of Louisa Lawson and the divorce petitions of wives who framed their experiences as legal cruelty.