AustLit

A steamer captain on the Dnieper River takes a Russian bishop, four nuns and 23 students as passengers at Bykhow only to discover that they are Polish revolutionaries determined to free their compatriots who have been taken prisoner. They succeed, and the captain and his Scottish mate are imprisoned for a time as accomplices ... Narrated from Australia - in the last paragraph. Well-written, European. (PB)

The division of five orphaned children between five poor families at Emerald Hill. (PB)

Romance set in a Victorian town. A faithful husband discovers the secret of his wife's coldness to him - the child whom she loves and a youthful marriage to a music master who became a convict. Little substance. (PB)

Detective story purporting to be factually based. A coach robbery on the Castlemaine road between Chewton and Elphinstone (Sawpit Gully) in November 1855 results in the murder of a passenger. Several months later the detective narrator and his mate receive news that the murderer may be hiding in Melbourne. They catch him in an oysterman's barrow and with his assistance catch the other gang members. They are hung for the murder, though nothing is apparently done about the murder of his wife by Portuguese Harry when he thinks she has betrayed him. More action than tension, but well-written. (PB)

Two friends fall in love with a beautiful governess. They ask her to choose between them but before she does so she tells them of her poor childhood and experiences as a thief and a prisoner ... Overdrawn. (PB)

Set in London and Sydney, a poor painter woos a well-connected but poor curate's daughter. They marry but he has fallen out of favour so they move to Petersham, Sydney, to try a fresh start. He is struck blind by a lightning bolt and she finishes an important commission for him. They are very well-received but are her last public paintings as they return to England, he regains his sight and his reputation and she becomes a mother (!) Interesting principally for its glimpse of Sydney and as an example of a woman 'respectably' painting for the public. (PB)

A sailor on a ship bound for Fiji from Sydney refuses to assist a merchant to fool his fellow sailors, inadvertently ensuring that the captain's daughter will not marry the man either. He saves her from drowning, is himself presumed lost but re-encounters her as she fulfils a promise to take his savings to his mother in Sydney. Sketchy romance. (PB)

The disappearance of Bella Forbes from her father's house in a very wealthy Melbourne suburb reveals her hatred of her step-mother and the latter's strange relationship with the chemist Mr Brandon who is later found murdered. Bella is found again and the step-mother's bigamy exposed with the aid of a chemist's boy, Bill - who is more than he seems. A case of cross-dressing investigated by a private detective - a friend of government detective Sinclair. (PB)

Utopian tale of the future. Set in June 1903 amidst a dozen labour-serving devices and an aerial car, a lover's protestations that he has loved no-one before are disproved by a phonograph record of her voice ... Lightly humorous and interesting. (PB)

A married man's flirtation with an intelligent 'ugly-handsome' woman appears to have gone too far when she agrees to marry him and his wife appears as he is trying to explain. All is a female joke. Brief; some small interest re - the woman's final triumph over man's plan to avenge his sex. (PB)