AustLit

A tailor's lateness and a borrowed dress suit almost lose a bridegroom his new bride - until he confesses neither it, the cigar case or a love letter in its pocket are hers. Humour. Slight. (PB)

Tale of the supernatural set at sea on the trip from the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta. The ship's second mate sees the spirit of his brother at the very hour he died in England. Plain 'realist' tale. (PB)

Tale of love and murder in the Virginia mountains. An innocent country girl is seduced by a rich Baltimore man and abandoned when he recovers his health. After her baby dies her old suitor marries her - but when her youthful love returns for a visit two years later and is struggling with her husband on a precipice, she intervenes to throw her husband over the cliff. She dies shortly after and her old lover marries in Paris. Plain tale powerful in its incident. (PB)

Romance of English travellers in Europe and smuggling. A poor art student in Brussels is freed from a debt and a warrant - and wins the hand of a beauty - by informing the customs that she was smuggling lace - slight, humorous coincidences. (PB)

A nobleman's servant obeys his master's orders when announcing dinner - with humorous results. (PB)

English tale of the love between man and boy ruined by jealousy, and a murder in the circus ring. A condemned man narrates the story of his affection for a young boy he trains to work with him as a circus acrobat, their falling out over a beautiful female rider who the younger man wins, and his murder of the youth by letting his fingers slip during the trapeze act. He confesses his crime so that he might die and no longer be haunted by his guilt. Overdrawn repentance but narrative interest maintained. (PB)

Romance begins when Leonard Halsey is driven to a woman doctor by toothache. A year later, his prejudices overcome, he pays his bill by marrying her (she seeks rest in his arms.) Slight; humorous advocacy of woman doctors. Desirable social outcomes! (PB)

A jumbled bible story told by an elderly parishioner filling in for an absent teacher vastly diverts his charges. Humour. (PB)

A new arrival in Melbourne hears tales of snake bites and adventures from his fellow boarding-house lodgers - and wakes to find his ankles bound together. After summoning his fellows it is discovered to be a bed snake - his sheet. Humorous tale including a genuine example of the snake horror genre. Competent blend of the heroic bush tale and ironic self-deprecation. (PB)

Tale of family disputes, a false will and false assumption of guilt - set in England with Australian references. A stormy night elicits a tale of a brother and sister's unhappy childhood with their stepmother and her son; of the son's receipt of £5000 from their father's estate and of the attempted murder of the brother and his rescue by his sister on the night their step-brother chooses to escape England for Australia. Only his return to restore the £5000 and the true story of the attempted murder brings the truth to light. Competent tale. (PB)

A Hobart merchant's night of adventure when fireman on a Tasmanian railway line in 1871. Three escaped ticket-of-leave convicts, brigands at large, capture the engine he had prepared for a new trip from Launceston and - one of them recognising him as a witness who had helped convict him - he is suspended between the front buffers of the engine and endures a nightmare ride expecting death at any moment ... Well-paced narrative of action and terror in a Tasmania still in process of settlement. Includes a degree of intellectual reflection. (PB)

A young Melbourne locksmith is entrapped by a magician's lock when he is called to assist him pick another lock - and is nearly arrested as a thief. Brief plain narrative; exposing humbug of magician's general tricks. (PB)

A small boy reproves Napoleon for throwing stones at a boat of ladies on the lake at Malmaison, France. Historical. (PB)

American romance of a woman's selfless love for an unworthy man absorbed in his love for a glittering untrustworthy woman. He is jilted and the scales fall from his eyes - but too late as she is about to marry another. Slight. (PB)

A wife's hunt for a lost object, and a comparison to those who spend their lives hunting for happiness. Lively. (PB)

Mrs Batten mistress of her farm Hillside and wife of a drunkard picks up a motherless boy in the bush and gives him work and a home with her. She discovers he is her husband's son by his first and true wife who he deserted and she makes a will leaving the farm to the boy. Stephen Batten is kills her in a drunken rage and himself falls into a disused well and drowns - leaving the boy 'master of Hillside'. (PB)

A travelling photographer hears the tale of a decaying love in the Passaic Valley, New Jersey, USA. A groom deserted by his tom-boy bride on the wedding day locks up the beautiful house he had built for her and orders that it be left to decay. Light. (PB)

An angel comforts a grieving mother for her child's approaching death by showing her his future evil life. Pious pathos. (PB)