AustLit

Account of a fatal duel between a soldier from Georgia and another from Mississippi over a lady's favours during the Civil War. Certain shock impact. (PB).

An American travelling in England visits Brecon Castle, scene of a lovers' tragedy in 1429, and through mischance his guide is killed leaving him locked in a dungeon cage. A dream of the lady tragically killed by her father years before shows him the way out of his trap. Slight; competent. (PB)

Anecdote of the French dramatist Labiche and his quick-thinking to save the village of Sauvigny during the Franco-German war. (PB).

Romance between an English girl and a French clergyman is destroyed by another in the mountains of France. A young beautiful and jilted Englishwoman discovers too late that her English suitor loves her still and now - freed of his marriage to a dancer - desires to marry her. The passionate clergyman who she has promised to marry also overhears and sacrifices his hopes to set her free. The sacrifice is the death of him ... Pleasantly written with some attempted depth of characterisation. (PB).

Satirical romance set in England. The young and comparatively wealthy widow of an elderly hypochondriac becomes engaged to a handsome young officer in Brighton. She is saved from bigamy only in the appearance of his deserted wife who tinted the portrait he had ordered from the photographer for his new fiancee. Social satire; brief and amusing. (PB).

A Parisian gentleman mistakes the apartment of a lady for that of an old friend and helps himself to lunch. Light. Brief Humour (PB).

Rural American romance of the schoolhouse. A young teacher at her first school takes a special interest in a diligent pupil - two years younger than her. When he saves her from unwelcome advances she thanks him but tells him she cannot return his love. A year teaching in the city and a bad attack of brain fever caused by his studies for the bar unite them ... Simple wholesome romance; woman's position as teacher and older than youth only distinguishing features. (PB)

A traveller's fearful night in a dubious hotel at Newburgh on his journey to New York. His suspicion of his landlord and his lockless room issue forth in a dream - but no murderous reality ... Slight variation on the hotel murder theme. (Machinery for lowering bed is included - in the dream). (PB)

English romance. A misunderstanding arising from a misdelivered note impedes the course of true love until a meeting at the London Lord Mayor's procession clears it up. Slight, pleasant; cheery male narrator. (PB)

Romance set in Scotland and conducted largely in sign language. A schoolgirl is sent to Scotland for her health and while staying with her aunt learns sign language. Once out in society, she visits friends of her aunt and there meets a handsome officer, deafened in the Sudan War. She decideds to appear to be deaf and speaks to him on her fingers - but eventually he discovers she is not deaf and reveals he too can hear again. Love follows ... Light; subject of some interest; narrator probably Australian. (PB)

Purportedly related by a Paris medical student; a New York traveller in Paris suffering from a terminal illness offers himself to three medical students for an experiment in electrocution rather than waste his body in suicide. The plan is accordingly carried out ... Effective non-melodramatic narrative - presents a sense of humanity amidst the grotesque reality. (PB)

US romance. Clive discovers his beautiful long-lost cousin Florence and takes her to the city to taste life and society. She prefers the values of heart and home and he asks her to marry him ... Slight; includes theme of sophisticated male testing the true spiritual nature of woman with city temptations before marrying him! (PB)

A wife's account of her husband's refusal to accompany her to concerts, lectures or parties, his refusal of affection and touch, his refusal to afford books to entertain her etc. Notes change in his love from their courting days. (PB)

Tale of a single woman's strength and weaknesses under trial. An independent spinster, uninterested in marriage, calmly deals with a burglar and has him arrested despite his leniency towards her, settling for £20. Her 'duty' bids her not protest against his heavy sentence, despite her sister's softness, and six years later he returns and robs her of everything. Interesting for its approval of her strength of mind and implicit condemnation of unwomanly lack of sympathy. (PB)

English domestic tale. A new wife gives her housemaid and cook the day off and determines to try cooking dinner herself - with disastrous and humorous results. (PB)

An ex-station-hand travelling to Sydney encounters a circus in a country town. Drinking with the 'Italian' circus proprietor and the clown he learns of the latter's unhappy marriage in England. Inheriting property from an uncle he foolishly marries a common spendthrift musician, finally eloping with her handsome music teacher when she has spent all her husband's money. They meet again, both with different circuses on the Continent, where he shoots her purported husband in revenge. Finally, weary of women, his circus comes to Australia and he plays the tragic clown. (PB)

Set in a poor suburb, a raw recruit to the police force has his introduction to the 'Phantom Horse' of the area, arranges a raid on a miserly shopkeeper he suspects of illicit distilling, and traces the keeper's murder to his simple and much-abused wife. (PB)

A servant's testimony asserting his master's soberness to the court nevertheless convicts him of drunkenness. Humour. (PB).

The famous opera singer consents to have a long tooth equalised with her others to keep a role in Paris. (PB).

Lord Camden, Lord Chief-Justice of England, accidentally gains first-hand knowledge of the suffering induced by time in the stocks. (PB)