A novel which narratively presents a series of short tales, these stories form part of 'a psychological experiment, conducted by an Austrian specialist in spiritualism. He constructs romances in which a dissatisfied and repressed Australian married man, nearing middle life, seeks relief from his longing for the world of his ancestors and from the depressing effects of his drab home-life on an Australian station. He is psychologically induced to play imaginatively the roles of the leading characters. Between the stories there are discussions on his emotional reactions. Throughout the work there are reflections on the enjoyment of romances, both real and imaginative, and on the relation between the illusions of experience and the actualities of life.' (Source: Miller, Australian Literature from its Beginnings to 1935, 1940)
