AustLit

A sledge ride from St Petersburg involves fleeing and firing on a pursuing pack of wolves. (PB)

Tale of a poet's authorship denied for an inheritance and reclaimed for fame and romance. Friendship is turned to a quick profit by a chum. (PB)

Tale of gold and a daughter's devotion. Kathleen Fosberry determines to recover the fortunes of her parents on their small cattle station by seeking gold on a deserted diggings nearby. She is assisted by an honest old miner and his wife returned to his former sinking after 20 years. Includes references to other women gold miners. After Kathie strikes gold, the family returns to Ireland and the errant brother, a Melbourne bank clerk, reforms. (PB)

Soon after the narrator is betrothed to Marion Courland she falls ill from the shock of seeing the ghost of her sister recently married and gone to India. From a telegram it appears she had died of cholera at the time of the family Christmas Eve ball in England. (PB)

An English engine-driver recalls a Christmas Eve years before in the Midlands when he and his co-driver had to outrace an express after lingering too long over brandy. (PB)

Romance of a coastal courtship. A cruel refusal loses Alice Viner her faithful suitor for six years until a storm reunites them. She finally proposes to him, still a common sailor. (PB)

A double courtship under false identities. To avoid charges of mercenary interest two officers exchange identities for a visit to a country house and possible heiress who will inherit only if she marries Vavasour. The plot is complicated by the heiress and her companion also changing places ... (PB)

English Christmas tale of an ancestress who ran away from her home, Despard Hall, to marry a Puritan preacher attacked and nearly killed by another suitor. Romance retold. (PB)

An English grandmother's Christmas tale of her youth; her father's quarrel with her brother over his chosen bride; and the reunion she helps arrange several Christmasses later. (PB)

Recounts the sale of the popular song, 'Ever to Thee' to English music publisher Mr Turner in London in the 1850s. A tramp momentarily reverts to his identity as gentleman but returns to drink and rags immediately after his tale is told and his song sold ... (PB)

A volunteer fireman's first night on duty is filled with a terrifying rescue of a beautiful girl - only to resolve into a nightmare ... (PB)

A detective solves the murder of an old woman through a dream - which points to her innocent-looking maniacal niece. (PB)

A London theatre star returns to her honest country parents for Christmas and meets a former suitor. A falling star precipitates a proposal and she is relieved to stay with the man she loves. Pure open country contrasted with tawdry city. (PB)

Family tragedy; murder and theft in Melbourne. The death of a young doctor, newly engaged, whilst defending his silver from a thief causes his neighbouring fiancee a severe illness, throws her father into a fever and leads to the suicide of their dissipated son and brother who had committed the robbery. The crime is solved by the deceased's friend and Detective Sinclair. (PB)

Brief reflections on Christmas Day, vignettes of family reunions, etc. Closes with thanks due from women for living in this country with its laws, protection, etc. (PB)

An aesthetic curate is wooed by a young lady's knowledge of botany, symbolism and Latin. (PB)

Set during the Maori wars. A mounted trooper takes 40 men to a country station where a wedding is to be celebrated on Christmas Eve - the very time when 200 Maori warriors have planned to attack. Not only does Captain Temple's plan beat off the superior force but he finds a beautiful wife. Long battle descriptions. (PB)