A 2003 historical novel by Colleen McCullough (author of The Thorn Birds)
The Touch provides examples of:
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Elizabeth gives birth to her daughters Nell and Anna at 16 and 17, respectively. When Anna is raped and impregnated at 13, she becomes an example of this too and makes Elizabeth an absurdly youthful grandmother at only 30.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Nell is certainly the latter trope, speaking in full sentences at only two and demonstrating a keen interests in academic topics far advanced for her age, but she's definitely not the first, often being quite abrasive and outspoken.
- Age-Gap Romance: Alexander is 15-20 years older than Elizabeth. She herself is 7 years older than her second husband Lee.
- Arranged Marriage: Elizabeth Drummond is essentially forced into this with Alexander Kinross, a distant cousin who she barely knows.
- Author Avatar: Eleanor "Nell" Kinross is this to McCullough, having many similar characteristics along with wanting to be a doctor, as McCullough originally did before learning she was allergic to the chemicals used in the OR.
- Awful Wedded Life: Elizabeth and Alexander, somewhat. She was forced into an Arranged Marriage with someone she barely knows and he eventually gives up on his sincere attempts at winning her affections. While they don't outright hate each other—if anything, he actually does love her very much and she herself admits there have been moments when they've been in complete agreement on things—it's never a happy union.
- Babies Ever After: Not only does the book end with Elizabeth introducing Nell to her new baby brother and sister, her stepfather Lee tells her that she's pregnant again.
- Child by Rape: Dolly is the result of Anna having been seduced (or raped rather, given her age and mental state) by a local.
- Childhood Marriage Promise: The moment Nell is born, Alexander declares that he intends for her to marry Lee, Ruby's son, irritating her with his attempts at planning their lives out so early. It fails, as there's never a hint of attraction between them, much to his disappointment and Lee ends up marrying Elizabeth.
- Chinese Laborer: There was a substantial Chinese immigrant population in Australia at the time of the book's setting and Elizabeth is awestruck at the fact that all of her husband's servants are Chinese, having never even seen people of other races before leaving Scotland.
- Chinese Launderer: When given a tour of her new husband's home, Elizabeth is embarrassed to learn that men will be doing her laundry, but she's quickly reassures that it's the custom.
- Chocolate Baby: When meeting Ruby's son Lee, Alexander notes his unusual hair and eye color and asks if his father is Chinese, which she confirms.
- Creator Provincialism: The book is set in McCullough's native Australia, like several of her other well known novels.
- Daddy's Girl: Nell, taking after Alexander in looks, personality, and interests.
- Dead Guy Junior: Despite her unhappy marriage to Alexander, Elizabeth names her son after him, though probably out of respect for Lee, who loved him like a father.
- Expy: One of the criticisms of the book is that Nell is essentially this of Justine O'Neill of The Thorn Birds, given their many similarities—an abrasive personality, difficult relationship with their mother, unconventional, but not necessarily unattractive looks, etc.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Despite clearly instantly adoring both her new baby brother and sister (or so she thinks, they're actually her aunt and uncle), Dolly is fonder of the boy because he has her mother Anna's eyes, and despite having only been a baby when Anna died, something in her remembers her.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo; Elizabeth is Dolly's grandmother, but takes over as her mother as it becomes increasingly clear that Anna, her real mother, can no longer care for her. The book ends with Dolly still clueless about her true parentage, thinking she's the big sister to babies Alexander and Mary-Isabelle when she's actually their niece.
- Fiery Redhead: Ruby. This is one of the reasons Alexander tells her they can't marry—"we'd kill each other".
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: A variation when Elizabeth discovers that her mentally disabled, 13-year old daughter Anna is pregnant (given her age and mental capacity, this can be considered nothing but rape). The local doctor refuses, but on medical grounds, not moral—Anna is too far along for the procedure to be done safely.
- Good People Have Good Sex: Elizabeth hates having sex with Alexander because she doesn't love him, but she's absolutely floored with how wonderful sex can be when she has it with Lee, who she's madly in love with. By the end of the book, they're the parents of twins, expecting again, and all dialogue indicates that they still can't keep their hands off each other.
- Groin Attack: Upon learning the identity of Anna's rapist, her nanny Jade entices him to her room, then drugs him and ties him up. He regains consciousness in time for him to experience her slowly cutting off his genitals, all the while just as slowly bleeding to death.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: When Nell gets older, her mother insists on her wearing dresses when she isn't working in her father's mine, resulting in several scenes of her tripping and falling.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Madam, rather. Ruby runs a brothel, but is clearly a good person and treats her girls well.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Ruby is roughly 15 years older than Elizabeth, but they become the best of friends.
- Kissing Cousins: Elizabeth and Alexander are distant ones.
- Like a Son to Me: How Alexander feels about Lee and vice versa, as Alexander has no biological sons and Lee's father is absent.
- Love at First Sight: Elizabeth and Lee have this reaction to each other, though neither of them recognize the feeling.
- Maiden Aunt: Elizabeth looks back over her 20-year loveless marriage and still thinks it was a better fate than remaining in Scotland as this.
- The Missus and the Ex: A variation, considering that she actually isn't the "ex". Ruby, Alexander's mistress, and Elizabeth, his wife, meet at a party and instantly hit off and become the best of friends. Despite their dislike before they met, each quickly comes to sympathize with the other—Ruby quickly sees how miserable Elizabeth is being married to a strange man thousands of miles from her home, while Elizabeth soon sees how much it hurts Ruby to have see Elizabeth and Alexander together while their own relationship must be conducted in secret because he's a prominent businessman while she's a madam.
- Practically Different Generations: Nell finds it very amusing that she's 24 years older than her new baby brother and sister, old enough to be their mother.
- Raised by Grandparents: Alexander and Elizabeth take over as Dolly's parents as it becomes more evident that Anna cannot.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The entire town is outraged when word gets out that Anna Kinross has been raped and impregnated, as the unknown rapist's behavior is especially despicable as Anna is not only only 13, she's mentally disabled and doesn't even understand what's happened to her.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Elizabeth is described as this.
- Settle for Sibling: Alexander wrote to Elizabeth's father asking for her sister's hand in marriage, but as she was already married, he offered him Elizabeth instead.
- Sexless Marriage: Elizabeth and Alexander settle for this, as it's ostensibly too dangerous for her to conceive again—she suffered from preeclampsia in both pregnancies and nearly died in childbirth both times. As Elizabeth doesn't love him and hates having sex with him, this works fine for her.
- Single Sex Offspring: Elizabeth and Alexander only have two daughters, Nell and Anna, with a Sexless Marriage afterwards because it's too dangerous for her to conceive. When Anna becomes pregnant, Elizabeth notes the irony that he might finally get a male heir via his daughter's rape, only for Anna's child to be yet another girl.
- Skinny Dipping: The first time Elizabeth sees Lee, he's doing this.
- Tangled Family Tree: At the end of the book, the ten-year old Dolly is the niece to six month old twins Alexander and Mary-Isabelle. Meanwhile, her aunt Nell is their big sister, despite being 24 years older than them, old enough to be their mother. This is because Nell's mother Elizabeth had her at a very young age (17). What's more, Dolly actually thinks that she herself is the twins' older sister, because she thinks Elizabeth is her mother, but she's not. She's the daughter of Elizabeth's other daughter Anna, who couldn't care for her as she was mentally disabled, meaning that Elizabeth is actually her grandmother.
- Where da White Women At?: Ruby and Lee's father, then later Elizabeth and Lee.
