Cirrus@Austlit

Dedication: To Beatrice 'Near, or far, Here, or beyond!' London, September, 1908.

E. Morris Miller's Australian Literature from its Beginnings to 1935 (1940): 688 comments: 'In The House of Broken Dreams, 1908, re-issued in 1912, a mother records from an "an Australian garden" the joys and sorrows that have come to her out of the life and experiences of her only son. He accidentally killed a playmate by a blow struck in defence of a dog that was brutally treated. His teacher re-appears throughout his life as a fate which holds him inexorably. The peace of the Dandenongs is changed for the turmoil of the city as the youth advances in his astronomical studies. The scene shifts to the grandeur of the Australian Alps. The teacher makes his re-appearance there. A tragedy follows and a mother's dream is ruthlessly broken. The sequel, 'The Small Brown Room', is included in Later Litanies, The mother sublimates her sorrow in charitable service among the dwellers of the city slums. She is consoled by an academic admirer who finds a lonely grave in the Antarctic.'