Robert Criteur Robert Criteur i(A72418 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 A Practical Joke Robert Criteur , 1881 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , June vol. 16 no. 193 1881; (p. 535-537) An Australian birthday party in 1860 witnesses Lucy Wilson's agreement to visit the nearby graveyard at midnight to prove she is unafraid of ghosts. Her friends follow her there and their thoughtless joke brings on insanity ... Plain tale; a little forced. (PB)
1 Filius Nullus Robert Criteur , 1880 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 15 no. 178 1880; (p. 347-348) A poor foundling's loveless life and his death saving another's children from a boarding-house fire. (PB).
1 My Christmas Box Robert Criteur , 1880 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , January vol. 15 no. 176 1880; (p. 258-265) Christmas in Melbourne in 1864 sees a box left on the doorstep of a barrister ruining his life through alcohol, which he had begun to drink on the Bendigo diggings. The box contains a baby girl for whom he eventually reforms his life so that by Christmas 1879 he has a cosy house and a sound practice. Broadly moral tale with some interesting material re diggings, drink etc. Mostly interior reflections. (PB)
1 Shot Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 14 no. 167 1879; (p. 387-391) A tale of the Victorian gold diggings, 1857-62. A woman is shot by her drunken lover but reunited with the English husband she had never loved on her deathbed. He pursues her murderer finding and killing him on a diggings near Bendigo five years later. Narrated by a mate of the wronged husband; includes a reminiscence of the couple's courting days and early married life in an English village. (PB)
1 An Expensive Ghost Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , August vol. 14 no. 171 1879; (p. 601-603) A bank clerk's plan to frighten a girl and her companion outside a bush township backfires, and his new mackintosh is riddled with gunshot. Includes a possum hunt and a trial before a magistrate. Varied interest. (PB)
1 The Haunted House Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story horror
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , July vol. 14 no. 170 1879; (p. 563-567) The narrator recalls the months he spent studying for an examination in a little Victorian township - Newford - in the 1860s. He often passed a deserted house and finding it occupied one day discovered some of its history. It was, in the late 1840s, the farm of a gloomy reclusive man who one day brought home a haughty wife. Their ceaseless quarrelling ended with her mysterious disappearance but a body was never found. Slow. (PB)
1 A Brand Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , June vol. 14 no. 169 1879; (p. 507-514) Tale of a Victorian schoolboy who journeys to Melbourne by rail to become a clerk but after several quiet years of work is led into gambling. He loses £500 of his employer's money but through the intervention of kindly people is saved from suicide and becomes a teacher, eventually paying the money back. Overly descriptive in parts but captures a youth's introduction to the railway, Melbourne, gambling dens etc., very clearly. (PB)
1 Sir Bertram Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 14 no. 166 1879; (p. 331-334) The circus comes to a Victorian township and the narrator - reporter and subeditor of the local Goldham Constable - hears the story of Sir Bertram, chief rider of the troupe. Younger son to a noble English family he left his home for the Australian goldfields when his fiancee married his older brother. After several years' work he is injured on his way to another digging and is rescued from death by the circus troupe which he joins. Interesting narrative though style conventional. (PB)
1 Foiled Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , February vol. 14 no. 165 1879; (p. 290-292) Set on the Inglewood diggings in the early 1870s, a Chinese informant alerts the police to the likely theft of copper plates from one of the large mining companies. He expects a reward as promised but the police end up tussling with each other in the darkness - so both parties end up with nothing and the Chinese thieves secure their plates. Solid. Makes reference to the debate over Chinese labour, mining, etc. (PB)
1 Our Christmas Tryst Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , January vol. 14 no. 164 1879; (p. 233-236) A Christmas Day excursion of young Melbourne clerks and ladies to Mount Macedon in December 1873 concludes with an agreement to meet there again in five years time. The narrator is the only one faithful to the promise - Pleasant. (PB)
1 Charlie Black Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , December vol. 15 no. 175 1879; (p. 195-198) Paterfamilias concedes to his children's pleas and tells them a tale of the Ballarat goldfields when he was commissioner. A miner is killed for accusing Yankee Bill of cheating at cards and his wife loses her mind when she turns up seeking him from England several months later. Solid. (PB)
1 George's Clarke's First Love Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , November vol. 15 no. 174 1879; (p. 148-153) Account of a Victorian detective's first love in Melbourne in the early 1870s during a rash of burglaries. A robbery from Sir George Bellairs mansion in St Kilda leads to the tale of a family heirloom ring; a night at the opera with Madame Pericole singing and a lady in the audience who Clarke is quickly enamoured of; a Frenchman and his wife's flight from a Toorak hotel; and an arrest on a ship is revealed as a youth in disguise. Lightly and well-written. (PB)
1 A Beggar's Story Robert Criteur , 1879 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , October vol. 15 no. 173 1879; (p. 72-76) Half a crown buys an itinerant beggar's story of his life: leaving a snug English farm for Victoria's gold fields he makes money for a time, spending it freely and eventually marrying. His luck runs out, his house burns down, his wife dies and he starts to drink. He turns to begging but does not make a good living until he is lamed by being run over by a cart when drunk. His tale includes vignettes of other well-known beggars in Melbourne and throughout Victoria. Very interesting in parts; competent throughout. (PB)
1 Percy Graham's Dismissal Robert Criteur , 1878 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , June vol. 13 no. 157 1878; (p. 526-528) Tale of the Victorian financial crisis of 1878 and a young government clerk in Melbourne dismissed from his office on the verge of marriage. He goes to Sydney to seek work but is unsuccessful, breaks off his engagement, and is saved from ruin only by the kindness of a Melbourne friend who finds him work in his father's business. Weak style but historic interest. (PB).
1 Shower and Sunshine Robert Criteur , 1878 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , May vol. 13 no. 156 1878; (p. 441-444) Slight romance of the estrangement and reunion of a girl from Windsor, Victoria, and a Bank of NSW accountant from Rutherdale. Jealousy separates them but her two years in Tasmania and his lonely time in the bank do not allow them to quite forget ... Their feelings are reflected in the weather - well-described but still a little disproportionate. (PB).
1 A Sister's Love Robert Criteur , 1878 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , April vol. 13 no. 155 1878; (p. 400-402) Account of a brother and sister attending a shilling school in Victoria in the 1860s, and the sister's courage in saving her brother from a fight over marbles. Interest more in subject than style; ring of authenticity, reminiscence. (PB).
1 Tender Recollections Robert Criteur , 1878 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , March vol. 13 no. 154 (p. 334-335) Two bachelors in their landlady's drawing room in Victoria share a Valentine's day reminiscence. Three attempts at verse writing are included in this tale of youthful romance. (PB).
1 A Lost Life Robert Criteur , 1878 single work short story
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , February vol. 13 no. 153 1878; (p. 283-286) Two Melbourne men - an accountant and a state school assistant - on holiday in the hot Victorian town of Aramouse (Ararat) visit the local mental asylum and hear the sad tale of an inmate's lost wife. He was a happily married store supervisor in Taralong until he offended the new bank manager, who eventually embezzled bank funds and absconded with the farmer's wife - apparently using some form of mesmerism. Interesting portrayal of social life in a small town - and a lunatic asylum. (PB).
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