AustLit

The circus comes to a Victorian township and the narrator - reporter and subeditor of the local Goldham Constable - hears the story of Sir Bertram, chief rider of the troupe. Younger son to a noble English family he left his home for the Australian goldfields when his fiancee married his older brother. After several years' work he is injured on his way to another digging and is rescued from death by the circus troupe which he joins. Interesting narrative though style conventional. (PB)

A young orphan's journal unfolding the events of his uncle's death and her own conviction as his murderess. An unexpected visitor to the prison promises her freedom ... Set in England. Unusual style, quasi-poetic but effective in parts. (PB)

Uneven tale of a girl raised away from her father for many years who wins his love and that of a fine young saxon, but on the eve of her wedding day is told by her scheming cousin that she is illegitimate. She flees and it is three years before the truth is revealed and happiness restored. (PB)

Class valedictorian Ernest Thorp dies after giving the speech at the graduation ceremony in his mother's arms. He succumbed to overwork and privation from the years of self-imposed isolation following the loss of his family's fortune and his separation from the rich girl he had nobly loved. Insubstantial. (US?) (PB)

A beautiful tiger moth refuses to accept a humming-bird's admitting friendship because it had scorned him as an ugly chrysalis. (PB)

A college quarrel between a poor student and the rich idler who accused him of stealing a bank note from his desk. Death nearly results from another's practical joke. Sketchy. (US?) (PB)

An advertisement in an English paper from an Australian lawyer looking for the heir to £100 000 leads to much searching of English parish records on behalf of a poor servant family. A visit from an Australian friend returning home eventually reveals that it is a lawyer's confidence trick - but often claimants refuse to be convinced. Interesting perspective and well-written. (PB)

A miner's self-sacrifice saves the fiancee of the woman he loves from the cave-in which takes his own life. Slight but atmosphere well-created at times. (England?) (PB)

A rich Englishman's kindness in rearing the son of a childhood friend is repaid when the youth falls in love with his unknown granddaughter - child of the daughter he had disinherited for eloping years before. Slight. (PB)

Romance of a city girl who finds she loves the country doctor she had refused to marry - but only a storm breaks the misunderstanding. Slight. (PB)

A mysterious white-haired shanty keeper has her revenge on the magistrate husband and haughty daughter she abandoned for a neighbouring magistrate years before. A country policeman tries to solve the mysery but it is only revealed at the will-reading after her husband's death. Sexual sub-text; and mother and daughter involved with the same man. (PB)

A mother's despair at her son's funeral leads to suicide. (PB)

A witness bludgeoned by his lawyer perjures himself while trying to tell the whole truth. Dialogic narrative confusing. (PB)

A boarding school friendship leads to romance with the narrator's brother for Ruth Delman, and eventually to a reunion with the rich father she had been stolen from in her infancy. Unlikely. Sketchy. (PB)

Anecdotes of the malaproprisms, mispronunciations and mishearing of words, especially in singing, foreign languages etc. (PB)

Anecdotes of unlikely friendships between animals e. g. horses and cats, cats and mice etc. Includes NZ example of a pig and a dog at a native pah. (PB)