Cirrus@Austlit

Humorous description of the animals and their characteristics. (PB)

Exemplary tale of a young man's restraint in the purchase of a valentine so that he might buy a sewing machine for a poor girl and her mother. His sweetheart is quickly mollified when she learns the lesson for her apparent niggardliness. Light. (PB)

Description of a man's sensation of being swept out to sea and drowned. (PB)

Domestic tragedy in Paris. A professor married for 15 years attempts to poison his stolid wife that he might marry the young widow he loves. A spider causes him wife to change soup bowls with her husband at the last moment and so save herself. Relentless monotony of tone creates strong atmosphere. (PB)

An old man's deathbed surrounded by his family. (PB)

A nervous man travels overnight in a railway carriage and despite the assurance of a communication cord linked to the guard dreams of robbery by an armed man. Slight; weak 'dream' ending. (PB)

Romance set in an atmosphere of share swindling. An honest young man is duped by his prospective father-in-law into boosting the value of shares in a mining speculation. His American uncle appears and proves to be neither a ghost nor a millionaire who has left all to his nephew - but does extricate the youth from his debts and gains him the wife he desires. Slight. (PB)

A young woman's refusal of marriage and determination to try her wings in the city are converted into a realisation of the value of her true home with the man who loves her. (!) Moments of spirit and conventional resolution to this slight tale. (PB)

Tragedy of the two brothers separated by their love for the same woman. The barrister wins her over his gambling brother and eventually as judge condemns his brother to death for murder. But as his brother is executed - judged with justice not love - the judge shoots himself. Tone of inevitability and relentless 'justice'. (PB)

Light romance. A childhood engagement promoted by their mothers can not ultimately contain the hearts of two friends - and a mock engagement becomes real. Narrated by an aunt to her niece. (PB)

A colonel's reminiscence of his ship's encounter with merciless pirates near the West Indes as he voyaged to join his regiment in the 1830s - 40s. A clever bluff stalls the pirates' attack until a richer prize arrives. Sturdy adventure tale. (PB)

Domestic 'humour'. The ardour of six months' marriage is contrasted to the ill-tempered arguments of six years. (PB)

Australian romance. A suitor for pretty Annie Playford's hand is successful on second application to her father - after he has saved her from being swept away with a flooded bridge. (PB)

Humorous depiction of a house tyrannised by a bulldog. (PB)

An old miserly woman is found dead in her room by the local policeman. He proves the apparent suicide to be murder and the suspects include the woman's ruined half-daughter, her burglar de facto, a lodger, and a half-witted serving girl who covets scraps of rich material ... Insanity proves the key. (PB)

A small farming community hires a parson on the basis that he bring rain to their community as desired. His promise is never tested as they can never be unanimous, but in the end come to value him for his work. Small town tale. (PB)

On Christmas Eve a writer recalls her sad childhood and girlhood and thanks heaven that she has done what she could to bring joy to the world ... That night she dies and finds her first happiness in heaven. Pathos. (PB)