The title 10


 * [[image: button_0.png|25px|link=Cover_page|Go to cover page]]
 * [[image: button_i.png|25px|link=Introduction|Go to i. Introducion]]
 * [[image: button_ii.png|25px|link=The_title|Go to ii. The title]]
 * [[image: button_iii.png|25px|link=The_totem|Go to iii. The totem]]
 * [[image: button_iv.png|25px|link=The_far_distant_shore|Go to iv. The far distant shore]]
 * [[image: button_v.png|25px|link=Driftwoods|Go to v. Driftwoods]]
 * [[image: button_vi.png|25px|link=Dry_tears|Go to vi. Dry tears]]
 * [[image: button_vii.png|25px|link=A_circle_of_grey|Go to vii. A circle of grey]]
 * [[image: button_viii.png|25px|link=To_be_found...|Go to viii. To be found…]]
 * [[image: button_ix.png|25px|link=Information_pack|Go to ix. Information pack]]

page 18  Her book Black Opal is a moving story infused with the magic of the mysterious gemstone, symbol of Australia. The following excerpts appear to be key references to inspire the title of "Opel": In every man’s eyes was the same worshipful appreciation of black opal. …

They could not, he said, accept the magnificent pessimism of black opal. They would not rejoice with pagan abandonment in the beauty of those fires in black opal, realising that, like the fires of life, they owed their brilliance, their transcendental glory, to the dark setting. But every day the opals made worshippers of sightseers. They mesmerised beholders who came to look at them. …

He had dreamed of that stone. It had haunted his idle thoughts for years. He had seen it in the dark of the mine, deep in the ruddy earth, a mirror of jet with fires swarming, red, green, and gold in it. Dreams of the great opal he would one day discover had comforted him when storekeepers were asking for settlement of long-standing accounts. He did not altogether believe he would find it, that wonderful piece of black opal; but he dreamed, like a child, of finding it. …

He threw himself on the sofa under the window and held the opal to the light, turning it and watching the stars spawn in its firmament of crystal ebony. — Katharine Susannah Prichard, The Black Opal