The Bjelke Petersen, Marie 1874-1969 creator text utu 2026 monographic en 1 online resource : multiple file formats "The Captive Singer" by Marie Bjelke Petersen is a novel written in the early 20th century. It sets a London society beauty, Iris Dearn, against the wild allure of Australia—especially Tasmania—where a mysterious, chivalrous guide with a remarkable singing voice stirs both curiosity and feeling. The story promises romance and identity intrigue shaped by class divides, reputation, and the competing pulls of salons and bushland, with a determined suitor from England closing in. The opening of the novel moves from a glittering London reception—where guests debate love and modern mores and gossip about Iris’s refusal to play by society’s rules—to the Tasmanian mountains, where Iris and her cousin Mrs. Henderson befriend their guide, Mr. Rees, a reserved, educated “gentleman” doing humble work. In a limestone cave Iris lingers alone, panics when her lamp fails, and hears a haunting tenor voice rise from the darkness; Rees appears, soothes her terror with song, and leads her safely out, leaving her shaken and ashamed by her vulnerability. She avoids him until she can explain her mortification; he reassures her gently, then hurries off to help a sick neighbor, underscoring his quiet usefulness. Soon after, a country sports day showcases the local crowd’s exuberance and Rees’s skill: he rides a black thoroughbred, Prince, to a triumphant jumping win—spurred on by a rose Iris gives him—deepening her conflicted admiration. The section closes with Iris radiant yet inwardly unsettled, her cousin teasing, and the emotional consequences of the cave and the victory hanging in the dusk. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Release date is 2026-02-22 David E. Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Originally published: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1917 Romance fiction, Australian Tasmania -- Fiction PR London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1917 https://archive.org/details/captivesinger00bjeliala https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78003 https://archive.org/details/captivesinger00bjeliala https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78003 UtSlPG 260607 20260610134816.0 78003