The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Conjugal misunderstandings of an American couple in London for the social season are resolved when beautiful Bertha Elmore flirts with the same ease as her husband Stephen. Both learn to value what they have. Light. (PB)
Australian coastal ghost tale. A traveller on a stormy night glimpses a father and daughter playing music together and on enquiry hears their sad tale. Settling in Australia after the death of his wife and collapse of his fortune, the former English squire and his daughter find happiness for some years. On reaching womanhood the girl falls in love with a worthy neighbour and all goes well until her father discovers he is the son of a convict. He forbids their meeting and one stormy night at a secret rendezvous the young man is killed by a falling rock and the incoming tide. Music is for a time the only solace for the girl, half-crazed by her loss ... Many Australian features in this tale, e.g: Swagman who returns ill news when denied money, love of riding etc; combined with British values, such as music, culture, status distinctions (Questioned a little but 'gentlemanly' code still paramount.) (PB)
A woman's devotion to the husband who has shamed her and dragged their name through the courts drives her on a stormy night to request an editor to suppress her husband's name in a criminal report. Extended comments on women's self-sacrifice for unworthy men. (PB)
A Russian nobleman and chief of police cunningly tracks down an imposter who borrowed 30 000 roubles from a banker in his name. Meanwhile the banker himself is tempted to crime ... Light; nobleman's method of pursuit through questioning sentries is interesting but little more. (PB)
Domestic misunderstanding in an English commuter town. A suspicious husband's trip to London, his wife's unexplained absence, and a meddling old maid combine to settle a legal battle out of court and finally reconcile the couple. Slight. (PB)
Murder mystery. A dream foreshadowing her sister's brutal murder darkens the joy of the latter's wedding. The deed, committed soon after the newly-married couple's return from an Italian honeymoon, results in grief for many months until the murdress, her brother-in-law's new and controlling housekeeper, is exposed. She claims to have been his first true wife and controlled him by threatening to expose the vicitm as never truly married and thereby ruin her 'pure name' ... Well plotted though the hold over the victim's husband seems a little tenuous. (PB)
London society detective tale. A colonel suspects his young wife of having her own jewels stolen in order to pay gambling debts - and a private detective proves that his scheming butler is responsible for a double deception ... Light. (PB)
Dream horror night. Light. A tourist paralysed and alone after a fall on some steps on Milan cathedral's roof experiences terror's chill; clocks striking and his own funeral before his daughter wakes him. (PB)
A country policeman is murdered and suspicion points both to his mistress who he had been forced into dismissing that day, and his young wife whose life had been made a misery by them. A photographer's farewell photograph of the town reveals the true murderer however - and suicide following the photogrpaher's warning helps him elude a Melbourne detective. (The mistress dies of the DT's and grief; the wife leaves town for a convent.) (PB)
US romance set aboard a St Louis steamer and a train to Kansas. A gambler is reformed by his mother's pleading and a trusting young girl's request to help him regain her grandfather's losses from unscrupulous card sharpers. Light; Sir Lancelot's honest heart won by simple faith. Pleasant. (PB)
