'The books known as the Leisure Hour Library have long been favourites with a large circle of readers. In process of time some of these have fallen out of date, and the dress in which they were sent forth has become old-fashioned. The Committee of the Religious Tract Society has therefore resolved to issue a new series of stories suited for readers of both sexes, and well adapted for circulation in Sunday school libraries, and as gift and prize books. Each volume extends to 384 pages, and is well illustrated. Some members of the series will contain stories never before reprinted; others will consist of popular volumes of the old library, reissued in the new and more attractive format.
The present volume, The Black Troopers and Other Stories, is the first of the new issue, and the following - Strange Stories of Peril and Adventure; Remarkable Adventures in Real Life; and Adventures Ashore and Afloat - are published at the same time. Of these the first two have never been printed in book form before; the others are popular members of the old library. It will be found that these volumes abound in adventure, exciting narratives, and stories of bravery and heroism.'
(Prefatory note, The Black Troopers and Other Stories).
Frank Layton : An Australian Story
1854
single work
children's fiction
children's
adventure
'Frank Layton, the eponymous young hero, left without an inheritance after his father's death, has emigrated to make his way by working on a station. Initially he finds it hard to accommodate the rough bush conveniences with his own 'cultivated taste of a highly polished life', however, he proves to be made of stern stuff and can therefore express no genuine feeling for the plight of 'poor Cousin Bessie', caught in Canvas Town and likely to be there for perpuity. Not such a model of british manhood as Frank, Bessie's husband is untried and untested in the bush and 'has no aptitude nor determination ... energy or perseverance.' (373).' (Pam Macintyre 'From Canvas Town to Marvellous Melbourne: Melbourne in Colonial Children's Novels' La Trobe Library Journal 60 (Spring 1997): 74-83).
London
:
Religious Tract Society
,
1865
The Black Troopers and Other Stories
London
:
Religious Tract Society
,
1887
Z1488637
1887
selected work
novella
short story
children's
adventure
London
:
Religious Tract Society
,
1887
