AustLit

English tale of how a strict clergyman's opposition to his son's marriage to an actress is overcome. A lady from his own past appears as the actress' mother and threatens to publish his youthful and passionate letters to her unless he consents. Later he discovers she was acting ... Slight humour. [He is president of the Society for the Suppression of Drama, etc.] (PB)

Pathetic portrait of a little girl forced by her mother's illness to care for her little brothers and sisters. Her influence continues even after her death. Slight. (PB)

Domestic. A letter from his wife containing a drawing of his baby's hand persuades a travelling 'drummer' on a train to take the next one home. (PB)

US domestic. An abused wife resists the temptation to let her sick husband die - but kills herself. Brief; strong in parts. (PB)

Brittle encounter of youthful lovers at a masked ball - and the unmasking of heart and face. Some promise in its savagery - though also over-worked. (PB)

An accidental meeting in Arles elicits from an acquaintance, a British peer, the story of his feigned suicide. Ending questions whether it was a dream or not. [Better than usual.] Grossly explicit in parts; generally light. (PB)

English domestic tale and romance. The arrival of an ancient aunt to live with a happy Hertfordshire squire and his family creates some friction. But an affectionate niece and the old lady's cabinet of memories draw a story of her broken engagement from her. On her deathbed she is reunited with her former suitor, an old doctor. Pleasant. (PB)

Vignette from provincial France of a public servant visiting a town who falls in love with the voice and playing of his neighbour - only to discover - she is an elderly music teacher ... (PB)

A boy's deathbed and his final 'Our Father'. Pathos. (PB)

Thefts by a Paris dentist and his accomplice - a clever jeweller. From the accidental discovery of a lost necklace and its return after substituting false stones for its gems, the dentist is convinced by the jeweller to continue substituting pieces of jewellery on rich clients while they are under anaesthetic. A watchful mastiff spells their doom ... (PB)

A solitary summer for a young woman is unexpectedly filled when a young female rider has an accident near the front door. Her handsome cousin and mother are constantly in the house, as is the local doctor's son ... Romance and friendship follow - not necessarily in approved social order. Pleasant. (PB)

An Australian art collector falls in love with a portrait lent to him as security for a loan. He sees the original at the theatre and a ball but can never grasp her. Only on murdering the portrait's owner to retain possession of it does he discover it is the man's dead daughter. Not much sense of Australia; supernatural only thinly evoked. (PB)

Slight confused English romance. London writer John Jackson returns to his childhood home after three years and confesses his love for a poor girl to his cousin, Amy, who has inherited his father's farm. She loves him but hearing it is unrequited she accepts another suitor, leaving John the farm and reuniting him with his beloved ... (PB)

US Civil War tale. In 1864 a Confederate 'deserter' is sentenced to be shot as an example. There are no bullets when the execution is enacted - but he becomes an idiot ... Slight.

Moral of this anecdote of the plague is that many die of fright in epidemics, few from the disease itself ... Keep calm. (PB)

A mounted trooper and his wife are threatened by one of her former suitors who plans the robbery of a nearby station owner with a weak accomplice. The wife's young brother Jack overhears the plot and the robbery is prevented, though the villain himself escapes. He is caught by Jack and shot ... happy ending. (PB)

A man blind for 20 years captures a burglar at a country house party through a combination of astuteness and wine laced with a narcotic. Probably English setting. (PB)

On the peculiarities of boyhood. (PB)