Cirrus@Austlit

Behaviour of a rooster when confronted with a mirror. (PB)

A prosperous English jeweller is duped by cunning thieves posing as a rural dean, his nephew, and a Scotland Yard detective. Lightly comic with a tone of bonhomie deceived. (PB)

Mary and Philip Barton are separated after ten years of marriage when Mary is visited by a mysterious and handsome stranger whose identity she will not reveal. Five years later, the death of their daughter and the return of Mary's brother, a reformed criminal, allow a reconciliation. Tale of domestic disruption, piety and sentiment. (PB)

Dramatised history of the magnificent diamond necklace presented by Napoleon to his sister-in-law Hortense when she was crowned Queen of Holland in 1806, its return to him just before his exile, and the many vicissitudes it went through before being returned to her after his death in 1821. (PB)

A Scotsman travelling with a friend finally sees the humour of a printed sign for those who can not read - but even then gets it wrong. (PB)

Tale of a governess engaged on her ready promise not to pursue her employer with marital intentions. She keeps her promise and he comes to wish she wouldn't - until he discovers she is his estranged nephew's fiancee. (PB)

The magician Robert Hudson's account of a trick that failed and his escape from exposure. (PB)

Pretty spoilt Rosa Eldon breaks her engagement to Clarence Hyde when his poor old uncle comes from California to live with him. But her sister Lizzie marries him instead - and discovers the uncle is not so poor. Virtue rewarded, etc. (PB)

Tale of murder, suicide and spirits. A traveller experiences a vision of Silas Marsden's murder of his wife in the days following the American revolution and his own suicide three years later plus a return of the damned spirit. (PB)

Civil War story. A Confederate soldier is sentenced to be shot for desertion in Virginia in 1864. He is helped to escape to Union lines by his sister - and the narrator who sees her plan. (PB)

A beautiful calculating woman's plans to win her friend's fiancee seem successful - until she learns that in winning him he has lost his property. The jilted friend eventually marries her cousin - spurned also by the beauty who is forced to become a drudging governess. Light; sense of family loyalty vs. scheming outsiders. Loyal middle-class lawyers' family more worthy than unreliable nobility. (PB)

A poor boarding house boarder on the Hudson has a dish of crow specially prepared for his thrifty landlord. Humour. (PB)

Romance of a sea voyage and shipwreck with gothic touches. A sailing ship leaves Sydney for London with three passengers - all others preferring steamship travel. The narrator falls in love with the captain's niece but only the privations of shipwreck with thirst, starvation and the crew's cannibalism, and an encounter with her mad husband on a deserted wreck in mid-ocean, reveal the nature of her sorrow and clear the path for their romance. (PB)

A street urchin is killed by a tram, and his brother lies down and dies beside him when he discovers his body in hospital. (PB)

A gang of boys play a practical joke on a stranger in town - and inadvertently help him discover a rich copper deposit. (PB)

The murder of the rich local landowner Colonel Albinson brings to light the past he escaped in England and his mad wife; and destroys his plans to marry his ward. A son's quarrel and repentance are included. (PB)

US President Pierce's caution about receiving a large mysterious box from Cincinnati and the discovery of its contents. Occurred in New Hampshire in 1852. (PB)