The John R series


In the early 1890s Margaret Oliphant wrote several stories* about a young man named John. The second and fourth stories, which appeared in Pall Mall Magazine, give his name as John Rothbury. The first and third stories were published in different periodicals, and give his name respectively as John Rosendale and John Rushton. (It is probable that the stories originally used just one last name, but were changed after she was unable to place them all with one publisher.) The stories were published out of order, but are listed in their correct order below.

The first, A Story of a Wedding Tour, tells what occurs when a young bride is accidentally separated from her pawing, heartless husband. The story also covers briefly the boyhood of her son John. The remaining three stories center on John - in France, at Oxford, and afterward as an artist.

* In the end there were four stories, but the second story, John, may have been a rewrite of the first, expanding John's story, and omitting most of his mother's story. The first story seems to have been rejected as "unsuitable" by The English Illustrated Magazine in 1892. (Information from John Stock Clarke.) 




A Story of a Wedding Tour
Short Fiction1894
John
Short Fiction1894
The Whirl of Youth
Short Fiction1893
A Mysterious Bridegroom
Short Fiction1895

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