This swirling tale contains all the hallmarks of the classic Victorian 'Shocker': a mystery, a romance and, for one family, lives transformed. We have embellished it with the addition of critiques and extensive notes and a collection of superb wood engravings from the 1860s. It is a page-turner of a book you can wallow in and enjoy.
Ellen Wood (1814-87), mainly published as Mrs Henry Wood, was one of the best-selling novelists on the nineteenth century, making her name with her second novel, East Lynne, first published in 1861. It sold a staggering two and a half million copies, and the equally successful melodrama developed from it became a staple of repertory theatre for decades. Lord Oakburn's Daughters is a better novel than East Lynne, fanciful in parts but never as unbelievable. It sold well (continuing with several editions in the early twentieth century) then disappeared. Though not her biggest seller, it is arguably her best. We have revived it in a newly-set, meticulously edited, annotated and wonderfully illustrated new edition, while retaining the spelling and (largely) the punctuation of the original serial edition. Prospero republications are not mere scannings of older texts. They receive the same close scrutiny as our brand new works and are laid out attractively on the page.
The story begins with a mysterious stranger, a beautiful young woman who has come by omnibus (horse-drawn, of course) from the railway station. She calls herself Mrs Crane and is pregnant, but is she really married? Where is her husband? What is her true identity?
These questions gain in importance as the mystery becomes a murder story. Who was the killer? Suspicion falls initially on one of the town's rival doctors, but they are men of impeccable reputation. So perhaps it was the unidentified stranger seen on the stairs. Or the uncommunicative 'Mrs Smith'. Or the maidservant, alone in the victim's room. Or one of the gossiping women who spent time alone with the victim before the poison was applied. Or perhaps it was nothing more than a ghastly accident.
Elsewhere in town and apparently unconnected with this unexplained death is the Chesney family. Captain Chesney, irascible, plagued by gout, is a retired sea-dog, widowed and sharing his house with three young women: Jane, the eldest daughter, strait-laced and dutiful; Laura, the beautiful middle daughter, impetuous and starting out on an illicit love affair; and little Lucy, an archetypal Victorian child. There was another Chesney daughter, we learn, who disappeared. What happened to her? Will we ever know?
Of course we will. Just as we will discover the truth about Mrs Crane. Just as, once we are well into the story, we will become familiar with the initially absent Lord Oakburn.
