AustLit

A stranger returning from many years in Spain falls in love with pretty Alison Laird and she with him. A separation when his partner in Spain absconds, a lost fortune, and a rival courtship by a wealthy heir to a title intervene but do not prevent their marriage. Light. (PB)

Australian station romance and adventure includes kidnapping and gold. Lightly self-mocking reminiscence of a Victorian youth's first love for a Melbourne judge's daughter visiting the station. Focus of tale is really on his tree climb to find his position when lost; his capture and deposit in a cave by a band of illicit alcohol brewers; his attempt to escape from the old mine during which he strikes gold; his consequent increase in income and loss of first love. Happy tone gently laughing at youth's follies - includes short bursts of praise for Australia and Victoria; nationalism. (PB)

Tale of brotherly love and self-sacrifice. Two Scottish brothers, sons of a farmer's widow, both love the same woman - also Scottish and a neighbouring farmer's daughter. She accepts one before she knows the other loves her too. The brothers (with an Irish guide!) join a party to search for a traveller lost in the mountains, become separated and after finding the man discover themselves trapped with only one chance of escape. The brother who has been refused sacrifices himself for his brother. He shortens his own longer straw and dies in a snowstorm together with the lost traveller. Adventure - much description of the mountain climbing, weather etc. Brothers' love. Odd mix of nationalities in Switzerland. Some of the descriptions of the lost traveller contain echoes of Australian bush. (PB)

Two former New York art students meet in a Western city, he being moderately successful and she working in a cloak store because her eyes were badly damaged by overwork. His Christmas cheque of $50 to help her recover her sight and her art bring them together and at last love is confessed. Light. (PB)

Two youths travelling in the Scottish Highlands get lost and take shelter in a shepherds hut. They are visited during the night by a young man and his dog who do not speak but show them where food can be found. An old woman briefly visits the next morning but vanishes quickly. They are finally rescued some hours later by Sir Ewen who tells them the shepherd was a ghost of a shepherd lost years before on the mountains, and the old lady was his wife who died that night, believing he had returned at last. Light romance and adventure. (PB)

Two mates sharing a claim at Dutchman's Gully in NW Victoria quarrel over a girl and some stolen gold. Joe knocks his friend out and when he discovers their hut is in the path of a burst dam places a log on Alf's legs so he can not escape. Joe regrets his act too late and believes Alf drowned. A confession from another miner he was sharing a tree with reveals who really stole the gold and when he sees Alf alive in the row boat he tries to commit suicide. Joe leaves town, giving Alf the gold, his savings and the girl. Plain tale - male friendship and betrayal, jealousy and attempted murder. (PB)

An old man revisits the good old days in his dreams and discovers life without gas, buses, fast post, steam boats and cranes, telegraph, or trains was not so good after all. (PB)

Romance narrated in letters between two women friends in 1883. A gauche ugly man slowly becomes the desired, masterful and romantic fiancée of an originally choosy and self-willed woman. Courtship; light. (PB)

US Civil War, 1863. A southern bride, a Governor's daughter, is wounded at the altar by a yankee shell and dies after giving her assent to the vows. Romantic tragedy; war. (PB)

A middle-aged woman servant arrives at a Victorian farm to assist a rheumatic old woman and her husband. She is, disguised, the 'evil' woman who tempted him to steal from his father and run away years before. She discovers the couple hate her, but father and son are reunited when the son is charged with her murder - part of her revenge plot. She attempts to burn his mother in her bed - and herself goes up in flames. (PB)