AustLit

Christmas tale of tradesman's vengeance. A London businessman takes a miser's advice and decides not to give Christmas boxes to tradespeople etc. outside his house. There is a noisy and expensive price to pay ... Humour. (PB)

Seasonal reflections on Christmas and the true Christmas spirit. (PB)

The tale of a merchant's murder of an old friend to inherit his wealth and his clever assignment of blame to a poacher who is exceuted for the crime. One year later he is deserted by friends and his own wife is dead. His relief is intense when he awakens to find his friends awaiting him for a Christmas dinner and the murder a dream. Heavy atmosphere. (PB)

Reminiscence of an excursion in Fiji by two ship's officers and their fears of consumption by the local cannibals. (PB)

Dot, abused and neglected by her alcoholic parents, is rescued from the street outside a brewey by a Sunday school teacher and given the warmth and comfort of a Christmas party before she dies amidst her joy. Piety and philanthropic sentiment mixed in this slight tale. Christian woman's nurturing mother role stressed. (PB)

Brief outlines of secret family preparations, children's expectant faces etc. Warm. (PB)

Romance and tale of dream visions. An Australian woman marries a rich but sickly Englishman visiting Australia for his health. They are recalled to England from Adelaide when his father dies. During a stay in an English village she is troubled by recurring dreams of her husband drowning a young woman - eventually the solution is discovered in her husband's twin brother ... Slight but well-sustained. Brother's secret existence a weak link. (PB)

A minister in Fifeshire twice returns a turkey to the market to be sold but accepts it on the third Christmas presentation. (PB)

A beautiful calculating woman's plans to win her friend's fiancee seem successful - until she learns that in winning him he has lost his property. The jilted friend eventually marries her cousin - spurned also by the beauty who is forced to become a drudging governess. Light; sense of family loyalty vs. scheming outsiders. Loyal middle-class lawyers' family more worthy than unreliable nobility. (PB)

A simple-minded Irish farmer tries to take advantage of his German neighbour's lack of English. (PB)

English roamnce of a girl persuaded to marry her father's rich and kindly and gentlemanly creditor when she hears that her lover has drowned on his journey to Australia. Too late she discovers he is still alive and the rest of the tale centres around her broken-hearted commitment to faithful love. Slight; emotionally heavily-laden; interwoven with verses from the ballad of Robin Gray. (PB)

Slight narrative from double perspectives of a lunatic who climbs to an attic apartment to part the clouds and sees his beloved's face - and the lunatic living there who assists him. Interesting, in a description of what drugs do to the soul. (PB)

Set in a large Australian town, not in Victoria, the tale of a lodging-house murder. A detective in the guise of a peddler, a hard-pressed landlady, a short-tempered printer and a nervous ageing colonel are the main characters. A mysterious house across the road, and a pair of family connections complete the picture. Drugged alcohol and a suicide at an inquest follows. (PB)

In a Dutch village near Leyden a promising painter gains his drunken father's permission to study the art - with the help of a neighbour and his sister ... Rembrandt. (PB)

Western USA. Death of an old gold miner with his friend of 30 years. Sentimental. (PB)

Domestic. On the slavery of fathers to their daughters, from 6 months old. Slight. (PB)