AustLit

Dramatised historical account of the terrible cramped prison in which a Dutch journalist was confined by France's Louix XV for insulting his mistress Madame de Pompadour. He died after 8 years, rat-eaten. (PB)

A beautiful Australian heiress returns to her father's family home with their newfound Australian wealth, snares her handsome titled neighbour into an engagement by accusing her poor gentle cousin - whom he loves - of having a low class London lover whom she meets clandestinely. The appearance of a stranger and his announcement in the church on the wedding day that he is the heiress' true husband reveals her plots. He also reveals that she had married him in mistake for his rich cousin in Melbourne, and had tried to murder him in a storm off the Victorian coast. Remorse, and the union of the true lovers ends the tale. (PB)

Narrative of the schoolboy narrator's meeting over stolen fruit with the well-educated and sterling character of the local shoemaker. Includes a sketch of the man's character, and a tale of his unrequited passion for the daughter of a loud-voiced merchant. He saved her from a fire but never touched her again - marrying a common woman. (PB)

Historical account of bushrangers - the Nelson gang, 5 escapees from Macquarie Harbour prison in Van Diemen's Land - and their exploits in Victoria. 'Crossing raid' in 1853 on goldfield near Bendigo - the Oxford Gully diggings. Four of the bushrangers were killed there by ex-Crimean soldiers turned diggers. The fifth escaped with the treasure. Jim Dickens who had lost the hard-won fortune he had hoped would make his imminent marriage easier never ceased to search and on his deathbed made one of his sons vow to carry on. The boy marries but poverty causes his city-bred Melbourne wife to long for departure. Through his bush-loving son's near-death looking for magpie eggs he discovers the skeleton of the fifth bushranger and the treasure. The family - including three orphan children of his dead brother, will move to Melbourne ... theme of city vs. bush, poverty and wealth. (PB)

A bachelor's promise never to be ruled by his mother-in-law and the sorry state of affairs after he marries. Domestic tyranny. Heavy-handed irony. (PB)

Busy woman intent on shopping mistakes policeman for tram conductor. (PB)

A railway delay near Patna, a meeting with an old friend and fellow officer and a week's hunting culminate in the narrator's near death from a tigress for shooting her cub, his pursuit along with his friend by the enraged tiger's mate, their desertion by their Indian hunting guide, and a terrible night's torment inside a rusty cage with the tiger outside. Escape and rescue finally arrive with their Indian guide. (PB)

A young married couple with a new baby are temporarily estranged when she discovers what appears to be an old letter declaiming his true love for another. Her silent sorrow leads to illness, to a confession and then to a revelation that he had written an unfinished novel before their marraige. (PB)

Very British murder confessional tale told by a sick colonel to his old friend and former Eton fellow, the Bishop. A tale of his youth, his courtship of his later wife, the murder of her then successful suitor by an Indian guest at a titled country house party; her attempted murder by the same Indian poison thorn - and the colonel's murder of the Indian by replacing the thorns in his own shoes. (PB)

Summer in a villa near Nice in the south of France and a pretty flower-seller learns she has been deserted by her noble English lover. She sees him with his new wife in Nice and she dies saving him from the knife her French suitor had meant for him. (PB)

The death of a convict under punishment at the rings through a medical officer's drunkenness opens a tale of attempted rescue of a handsome forger by the captain of a US ship in the harbour. Coly Price discovers the plot involving his chief constable and returns death with death ... (PB)

Domestic comedy. A husband and wife have a night at home - her accounts and chatter disturbing his corrections of the proofs of his novel. Patronising husband humour. (PB)

English country romance of fallen gentleman redeemed from poverty and disrepute by love of a fair English maiden. Driven to secrecy by the determination of his uncle to prosecute him for borrowing money from his safe to pay a gambling debt, John Roberts is saved by a job as a gardener then as a farmer on a small town doctor's land. He falls in love with the doctor's daughter and his character is reformed by her goodness. Her visit to his home town - and the portrait of his shallow former fiancee, together with a jealous cousin and curate's curiosity and the loyalty of an old Cambridge friend flesh out the story. (PB)

An untutorable husband and his much-enduring wife start for a holiday in the country on a Friday - against her superstitious wishes. Loss of their purses; missed trains; untrusting shop-keepers and hotel-keepers, rain and finally a thieving servant complete their very short and very uncomfortable holiday. (PB)

A good friend's advice to look after her dress and appearance to sing and read aloud to her husband win him back to his wife from the arms of the local society flirt. Good marriage advice, etc. (PB)

Set in the city and on a deserted diggings. Ned Braban is released from Pentridge gaol to be met by his drunken old mother and the news of the death of his street-girl sweetheart. His resolve to reform nearly dies but a deathbed promise to her makes him accept a fellow-traveller's offer at Coburg railway station to work in the country. A reunion with his real parents from whom he had been stolen years before is made through his benefactor's kindness and the return from the Californian goldfields of the father who had deserted his drunken foster-mother years before. Mag's attempt with the help of a villain to kill this husband for his gold while disguised as an old couple is foiled by her accomplice. She has no death-bed repentence. Includes a faithful poor woman; reunited family return to England. (PB)

A married couple of a year begin their day with a quarrel which is nearly reconciled by the strains of an old courting tune - but the habit is too much. (PB)