Cirrus@Austlit

A Yorkshireman mistakes Lord Melbourne for the Queen's footman - and is treated respectfully. (PB)

Lightly comic English romance recounted through letters. A suitor's sudden disappearance, sufficiently suspicious to interest the police, is finally explained by the regrowth of his beard. (PB)

English legal and domestic tale. Humorous account of the recovery of a missing deed from the lids of an assortment of jam pots by an exterprising legal clerk, and the £500 reward which enables him to marry. Light. (PB)

Lively tale of an old misanthropist's adoption of two children - at his sister's instigation - and the hope and warmth they bring to his life in East Melbourne. The girl, an orphan repudiated by her noble English connections, the boy - a street larrikin found in Fitzroy Gardens amply repay his and his sister's kindness. Includes interesting philosophical reflections, passing reference to Hamlet by the larrikin, etc. (PB)

Recounts the death of a simple-hearted man on the prairies of the USA. Manly sentiments etc. Concludes with a poem. (PB)

Father-daughter reunion set in England in the mid-1880s. A fisherman's son and talented artist discovers through a commission that his sweetheart, cared for by his parents since they rescued her from a storm as a baby, is the long-lost daughter of his patron. He brings them together when the painting is completed ... but her love remains true to him. Simple tale. (PB)

A farm boy's literal arguments confound a preacher - on ploughing oxen, and a goose's bite. (PB)

English tale of a young cheerful girl whose glimpse of an ancestress' portrait and dream of her life - deserted at last by her lover - convinces the girl to die in her youth and beauty while her lover still cares. Odd tale of maiden's self-destruction rather than face life; she dies in her mother's arms not her lover's.

Battle in a diving bell above the coral floor of Florida's ocean. Honesty vs. cupidity in securing a wrecked ship's cargo. Basic adventure tale. (PB)

Maternal love in the Alps. A mother climbs to an eagle's nest to rescue her captive child. (PB)

A dream warns a man of danger in using the lift at work - and his friend's scepticism is shaken. (PB)

Ghost tale from England in 1730. A benevolent but deceased uncle visits a London lawyer to inform him of the hiding-place of a deed which restores the fortunes of his Yorkshire relations. (PB)

Tale of a Missouri governor who pardoned a convict, a steamboat man, despite his cruelty to the governor in his youth. (PB)

An enterprising lady book agent sells three copies to the one newspaperman: one in person, one to his wife, and one to a friend. Humour. (PB)

Anglo-Australian romance of a Girton girl and a handsome young squatter. Driven by family necessity to give up her medical studies after her father's death, Joan Forbes takes a well-paid position as governess in Australia. She is directed at first to the wrong station on the NSW-Victorian border but sets the "boss's" broken arm and is quickly restored to her rightful destination, the neighbouring property. Despite her lack of cooking skills several months later she is engaged to the neighbouring squatter, her employer's brother. Entertaining story, well-written, topical subjects, heroine who slightly challenges traditional role expectations; nice vignettes of colonial Australia. (This author, 'Niente', slowly improving.) (PB)

In a small Victorian township on election day John Jabbock is murdered. A sensual drunkard recently turned insolvent the town store- and pub-keeper threatens to kill him but it is the upright doctor financially ruined himself and defeated by Jabbock in love 12 years before who has the best motive. Small town small-talk and atmosphere. (PB)