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The Second series of Johnny Ludlow stories appeared in book form in 1880, and includes stories which first appeared during the 1870s. Themes of crime, violence, romance, mystery, and deceit recur.
Tragic events among schoolboys take place in A day of pleasure (continued in The final ending to it) and Charles Van Rheyn. And two babies are poisoned in Hester Reed's pills: for the explanation of the tragedy you will also need to read Abel Crew.
In The key of the church Fred Westerbrook is accused of attempted murder, but The syllabub feast brings about a happy resolution.
Mrs. Todhetley's earrings and The other earring, not surprisingly, go together: in the first a theft is discovered, and in the second the mystery is solved. Lost in the post and A life of trouble also run in sequence and are stories involving theft and deception. They introduce the ill-fated Rymer family, and Margaret Rymer tells of the romance of the daughter of the family.
There is an ill-fated romance in Anne, as well as a wicked stepmother and disinherited daughter. But Robert Ashton's wedding day, despite a missing bridegroom and accusation of murder, has a happy ending, as does the potentially sad story of Lee the letter man, who loses his job for accidentally setting light to a letter.
Although Rose Lodge deals with a swindle, the tone is more light-hearted than one might expect, as the victims of the swindler are Johnny and Tod themselves!
A tale of sin, which tells a tale of illegitimacy and ruined lives, ranges over years of events and is one of the longer tales--almost a short novel. A fallen woman is the central figure in Hardly worth telling, another case of "the old, sad story", according to one of the other characters.
(With thanks for additional information from Michael Flowers).
Please also see the general introduction to the short stories of Mrs. Henry Wood
You may like to read online one of the short stories in this collection, Lost in the post, which is available as a separate page on this website.
Most of the short stories from this collection have been gathered together on one page and can be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 1184kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option. Link to the etext of Johnny Ludlow; Second series.
Follow these links to find selected stories from other books in the series:-
Page created 21 November 2002 and last
updated 9 March 2004
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