AustLit

A farmer seeking news of a neighbour's injury for his wife is confused by the doctor's jargon. Humour. (PB)

An English peer invites his fellows to dinner and serves them his recently deceased racehorse as part of the dinner. Odd anecdote. (PB)

On the way to Mendocino County to start a paper, Mark Twain and Dan De Quille encounter Indians and fight them off with a howitzer loaded with set-up type; articles, poetry etc. Humour. (PB)

Impoverished German peasants murder a rich traveller only to discover he was their son returning to share his hard-won wealth with them. Factually based. (PB)

A patient finally decides that restored hearing is not worth sacrificing his brandy and water. (PB)

True love is destroyed when a scheming woman uses her position as nurse to compromise herself with her mother's boarder during an attack of brain fever (kisses are exchanged). His faithful Ruth marries an African missionary when she hears of it - fate has separated them forever! Slight. (PB)

A self-convened court in a Wyoming mining town tries a handsome young boy for the murder of a gambler - only to discover he is a woman and the gambler the husband who deserted her and killed her father. Verdict unanimously not guilty. Competently written. (PB)

The answer to a tricky problem is solved by revealing that the boy lied - an anecodote with wide application. Weak. (PB)

Tale of two children badly abused by their drunken parents. Bob, nearly 14, runs away to earn money to save his sister, and she is beaten by her parents and witnesses her father cut her step-mother's throat. Bob comes back in time to hear her evidence at the inquest and prevent his step-father's escape. Dolly dies. Very strong picture of the abuse of children of alcoholics. (PB)

Loss of fortune and her father's paralysis prove the true strength of a beauty's character ... she recovers from a physical collapse and the man she spurned eventually returns. Light romance. (PB)

Interesting reflective tale of the discovery of the bones of a horse and rider lost in the bush in 1857 by a group of young picnickers in November 1878 near Mynella in the Pyrenees, Victoria. The man was an educated digger on his way to Ararat. Includes lengthy musings on the numbers who died in the bush in Australia's early days. (PB)

Anecdote of the American actor Dan Marble's interpretation of Othello in Palmyra, USA in 1834 - and the rage it inspired in a member of the audience. (PB)

The narrator succumbs to temptation on the eve of his wedding and burns a letter to his prospective bride from her former fiancee, now proved innocent of the crime that broke their engagement. He wins a wife - but only briefly ... Set in England. (PB)

Light humorous English romance of earlier days. An elopement is spoiled when the groom steals the grandmother instead of the granddaughter - but the midnight mistake finally wins the grandparents' consent. (PB)

English romance. A calculating mother breaks her daughter's engagement to a younger son once it seems that his brother will not die, and bullies her into marrying a German count. Tragedy follows when the count is revealed as a valet, and the younger son inherits the title after all. Slight - mercenary marriage theme. (PB)

On various mishaps and embarrassing moments in the US theatre - from loud audience comments to scenery malfunction.