AustLit

An aspiring US writer, masquerading as a woman, begins a correspondence with the female editor of a Boston newspaper, falling in love with her. When her letters cease he rushes to Boston - only to discover that she too is a man. Slight, humourous. Interesting, in relation to female/male roles in writing. (PB)

The famous English comedian offends the audience and earns their forgiveness. (PB)

A comfortably incomed bachelor determines to marry his impecunious nephew to his pretty ward until he discovers she is rich. He separates them, but - after a sojourn in the Northern Territory for his nephew and six lonely months in Melbourne for his ward, they are reunited during the opening night of a play. Light; wryly pleasant. (PB)

A farm boy's practical trick in a Massachusetts graveyard near Boston cures an old man's paralysis of the legs. (PB)

A doctor's dreams cause him to consult a specialist in mental illnesses - and the causes are sought in the happy Balmire family who live at Heatherville, a house near Mr Macedon in Victoria. The dark Spanish step-sister Inez loves the doctor, and he loves unrequitedly the fair, innocent Myra - a tangle of emotions that results in Myra's murder and Inez's madness. A silent witness to the crime does not intervene. (PB)

A young girl's ultimatum to her fiancee that he give up his farm for her parts them for two years - until she has learnt his wrath and to enjoy a farmer's wife's role. Probably US. (PB)

US anecdote of a comic barber confronted by a backwoodsman with unshorn hair and beard. (PB)

A Devonshire curate is asked for help by the one woman who threatens his vow of celibacy. She had formed a close friendship with a man she had come to love, and left her husband when he accused her of infidelity. The curate helps her, himself falling more passionately in love with her. She encounters her 'friend' one day and learns how quickly man's love passes. Her husband returns to nurse her and they finally leave together, the curate never confessing the passion in his heart. Intense passionate tale of emotions suppressed by ties of marriage, church, etc. Interesting, ultimately very moral. (PB)

Sketch of the English actor's superiority proven in fooling a Parisian coachman. (PB)

A horse salesman narrowly escapes with his life when an Austrian landlord and son attempt to murder him for his money - but kill the landlord's younger son by mistake. (PB)

A Russian officer marries a beautiful rich Frankfurt girl in 1813 and takes her home to Russia, there to rob and abandon her. She returns to Frankfurt to die. (PB)

Pretty Dell Lama loses her belief in women's "mission" and happily agrees to marry Robert Dudley after he rescues her from a snake. Very smugly anti-feminist. (PB)

Sentimental depiction of a family's pride when baby's photo is taken; and the grief of another scene after he has died. Pathos; slight. (PB)