AustLit

Account, ostensibly from an Englishman living in Moscow in the late 1880s, of a Nihilist prisoner's escape from custody in Moscow by cutting off his thumb to escape handcuffs and seizing a horse. Slight; brief. (PB)

Domestic tale. Fears caused to a married couple by the sound of a child's footsteps running up their hall and its cries are quietened when they discover a goldfish escaped from its bowl and cats on the roof. Slight; almost a sketch. (PB)

Romance set in India in 1885. A young officer needs £20 000 to marry his sweetheart. He resolves to try and win it through two horse races at Kulabad. Long suspense and a mission away, he wins. Light Kulabad club tale - high stakes and officers etc. (PB)

Depiction of a ship driven onto rocks by a storm in the early hours of the morning; from the point of view of the villagers who try to save the passengers. Includes the breaking up of the barque. (PB)

Light railway romance set in France. A gentleman's mistake in throwing a beautiful lady's wraps and bags onto the platform at Tonnerre in the mistaken belief that she had missed the train enables him to make her acquaintance. A pleasant trip continues though - having given the lady his shawl, he catches a cold - and a wife ... (PB)

Domestic conversation about a play: the wife intently describing the dresses, the husband wanting to know about the acting and the play itself. Humour. (PB)

A doctor hears a dying Italian's confession. In his youth a soldier/priest fighting to win glory and the hand of the beautiful Giulietta, discovered that she had been forced to marry a dissolute nobleman. Years later in an Italian cathedral he hears a confession - and after giving absolution kills the penitent. The narrator's travels in Italy reveal what the dying priest's vows could not - the penitent was the dissolute nobleman and he had poisoned the beautiful Giulietta. Slight; little development. (PB)

Melbourne domestic tale of women's rights and colonial literature. A husband's temper and his intolerance of women who go beyond their domestic sphere prompts his wife to teach him a lesson. She secretly writes a novel which impresses him so much that he gives her a copy specially bound for her birthday - and only then discovers she is the author. A little schematic but interesting and lively; women's rights 'safely' dealt with - within marriage, etc. (PB)

Adventure of an Australian tourist at St Paul's, London. Taking his last chance to see the famous cathedral the tourist persuades the verger to let him in at night. Repairs are being made and when the traveller idly grasps a rope suspended from the centre of the dome he finds himself being raised to an appalling height from the ground. He is saved only by the verger's quick thinking. (PB)

Clever swindle by a mother and supposedly invalid daughter at an English seaside lodging house. Pretending to be unable to walk without assistance, the daughter stays at home on Regatta Day, and coincidentally the lady lodgers are robbed of jewellery etc. A maid who sees the daughter waltz in an unguarded moment, the careful landlady/narrator, and a canny detective catch the pair ... Slight. (PB)

US tale of romance and disillusion, set at Saratoga and New York. Frank Mordant wins the heart of the beautiful young actress Jane Gordon during 2 months holiday at Saratoga. Too late he confesses that he is already engaged to a southern heiress and Jane refuses to allow him to break the tie. Her heart breaks and he marries as arranged - but she is comforted and nurtured by her friend Annie Page ... Social satire in part, partly the tale of woman's friendship. Slight. (PB)

Set in Austria, a Hungarian count's clever scheme to banish an unworthy suitor courting his daughter for her money. He framed him for burglary and forced him to leave town and be exposed to the law ... Very slight. (PB)

Set in Pulman-street, Sinclair and his wife live next door to a German violinist and his wife who complains to Mrs. Sinclair of her husband' miserliness despite a roll of gold sovreigns he has. The husband is murdered and Sinclair's investigations include a cheeky criminal and his 'light' lady, a gang of counterfeiters, the envious wife, a policeman masquerading as a ghost, a mistaken arrest and a night at the theatre. (PB)

Tale of an Australian flea and his family and friends. Tommy becomes discontented with his old sundowner's blood and longs for the body of an aristocratic person - a chance for advancement in life. Satirical. The sundowner takes a trip to Melbourne - and after making the rounds of several persons, happily returns to the sundowner, his family and romance ... Light; well written. Idiosyncratic for the AJ. (PB)

An English village curate assists the woman he secretly loves to turn away from the man she has grown to love and return to her husband she married at her father's wish in Switzerland. She teaches music and plays organ in his church until she learns of the friend's faded passion and her husband comes to claim her. Story does not question the conventions of Christian behaviour but does convey empathy for the woman's position and some musings on a woman's heart ... Generally well written. (PB)