AustLit

Amusing tale of London society. An Irish law student gets engaged to two women on the one night - but settles it amicably with his ready cheek and a flashing diamond ... Lively. (PB)

US tale of the Sacramento gold rush in 1852 and the narrator who is hung for horse-stealing by local vigilantes but survives to save a stage-coach from attack. Frontier tale. Lively. (PB)

Historically-based tale of the meeting of the outcast prince of Cyprus with the noble daughter of Venice, Catarina, during a festival. Two years later, as King of Cyrpus, he selected the very young girl as his bride ... conventional piece. Exemplary strain. (PB)

US frontier sketch of a young rider killed by a clever Indian ruse of a false prairie grave. Slight. (PB)

US frontier, a soldier wounded by the Apaches is scented and killed by a grizzly bear. (PB)

Tale of a priest and transportation to Australia. Set in Italy, Ireland and Australia. An Irish Jesuit priest is wrongly convicted of the murder of one of his parishioners and transported to Australia. His young brother becomes a doctor and follows him to Australia years later, determined to find him and prove his innocence. As prison doctor in Van Diemen's Land he gains a confession from the guilty murderer and finds his brother, arranging for their return to Ireland where his brother dies. Well-written; story of a young priest's life ruined, a mother's and a brother's love, and a murderer's revenge. Sketchy in parts, occasionally dully conversational language and thought, unusual subject for The Australian Journal.(PB)

Exemplary tale of a mother and wife who learns in time that housecleaning is less important than loving and playing with her family while they are alive. Moral tone inhibits but doesn't overwhelm sentiment. (PB)

A London detective's tale of how a calcualting thief hoodwinked him and his fellow policeman, robbing a banker's mansion at the very time he was in it. Slight. (PB)

A London clerk befriends a sickly youth on the Scotch express train - but blames him when he awakens to find his £5000 trust missing. He discovers his wife has the money, however, and all ends well. Slight. (PB)

Courtship/domestic. A newly engaged young lady's amateur attempts learning cookery from the Irish cook. Humour. (PB)

English provincial theatre tale. The success of a prompter's new play at his benefit night is guaranteed when he reunites a father and his erring daughter for real in the final act. But the surprise costs the father/actor his life. Slight (and somewhat insensitive.) (PB)

Romance and disillusion. A young girl and a 30 year old artist fall in love one summer, but he leaves her to retrun to the city, his career and his rich fiancee. Seven years later, a successful widower, he returns to claim her but her love has died and she is a successful author who offers him only her friendship. Bitter-sweet touches but conventional language diminishes impact. (PB)

Advice to suitors on a successful proposal scene. Humour. (PB)

An ex-prisoner's tale of his wife's successful attempt to have him falsely convicted of attempting to murder her - by swallowing arsenic regularly etc. All in revenge for the part he played in her first suitor's imprisonment and death. (PB)

Sinclair recalls a visit to the property of a friend up-country and the hunt for a bushranger centred in the area. He finds his friend's wife to be in love with the station manager. Her brutal murder and the robbery of her father precede the capture of the busranger and accomplices. (PB)

Domestic estrangement. A newly-married couple quarrel over his extravagance and when his company becomes insolvent he leaves to find work. She must struggle to support herself and their child, and some time later receives a letter from his apparently dying hand. Years later, she is helped to find work in a fishing village by a faithful Irish servant, they are reunited through a storm and a shipwreck. Slight; on wife's merciful judgement and husband's forethought ... (PB)