AustLit

Light-hearted. Encounter on an English train between a muscular curate and a gang of toughs, a young lady and a bishop being the only witness. Slight. (PB)

Society romance. A married woman allows an unsophisticated bachelor to devote himself to her and is surprised when he falls seriously in love. Fortunately for her he renounces her selflessly - neither she nor society understanding the true man. Slight. (PB)

The Harvard-educated son of a failed banker in Massachusetts sets out to make his fortune as a reporter in New York. He solves a murder and restores an English coffee-shop waitress to her inheritance before marrying her and making his fortune as a publisher. Light. (PB)

English travellers in Austria are forced to spend a night in an isolated inn and narrowly escape with their lives. The usual honest serving girl - this time speechless - assists them. Competent. (PB)

English society tale of theft. The daughter of a noble family is suspected of the theft and sale of a neighbour's diamond tiara until a maid-servant's written testimony clears her. Only the girl's fiancee and her gambling creditors knew the confession was bought ... Amusing with wry twist. (PB)

A train trip from New York to Chicago is sufficient to break down a confined bachelor's misogyny - but it is only during a theatre fire in Chicago that he discovers his companion is unmarried and indeed his childhood sweetheart. Light. (PB)

Romance of a British titled family. The younger son returns from many years in the USA to claim the title and estate when his older brother dies. He does all in his power to make his niece Louise happy - for he had loved her mother and left England in order not to betray his brother. But he finally comes to realise that Louise loves him and he lays the past aside to marry her ... Pleasantly predictable. (PB)

Domestic. A little brother effectively stems the affections of his sister's suitor. Humour. (PB)

Kleptomania by the wife of a respectable citizen is efficiently checked by an astute shopkeeper. (PB)

Nature and piety. The fates of two different morning glory vines - one outside a house in the sunshine, the other inside bringing joy to a baby ... (PB)

A successful society artist confesses to his double-life as a thief and finally a murderer in his final portrait of the woman he has long loved. He had hoped to reform but she refused his love, and it was her fiancee he unknowingly murdered. The background to the painting betrayed him ... Competent; the manner of the confession is interesting. (PB)

Sad tale of a London clerk who succumbs to the addiction of photography - loses job, self-respect, etc. (PB)

Poet confronts editor blaming compositor for not reading his illegible manuscript clearly. Humour (newspaper editor variety.) (PB)

Vice-regal setting in early colonial days. Inspector Dunn disguised as the nephew of a friend of the Governor investigates thefts from the Governor's office. He discovers a pleasure-loving son and a repressed daughter closely watched by a dragon of a chaperone. The daughter's love for a groom and her engagement to an old man explain much. Many references to class and status. (PB)