The Bartered Bride ambitious parents and a scheming marriage broker. The opera was not immediately successful, and was revised and extended in the following four years. In its final version, premiered in 1870, it rapidly gained popularity and eventually became a worldwide success. Czech national opera until this time had been represented only by minor, rarely performed works. This opera, Smetana's second, was part of his quest to create a truly Czech operatic genre. Smetana's musical treatment made considerable use of traditional Bohemian dance forms such as the polka and furiant, and although he largely avoided the direct quotation of folksong he nevertheless
A Bride from the Bush Raffles. When he published the novel "Peccavi" in 1900, a critic from "The Advertiser" wrote a scathing review, writing that Hornung should go back to Australia so he would be inspired to write something as good as "A Bride from the Bush" again. Upon Hornung's death, a tribute in "The Freeman's Journal" called "A Bride from the Bush" "the best and the best known" of Hornung's Australia-related stories. In 1924 André Cœuroy and Theodore Baker argued in "The Musical Quarterly" that Hornung's characterisation of the novel's hero as being pitiable for being unable to appreciate anthems demonstrates that "A Bride