Sequels to The Lightning Conductor
Molly gets mixed up in other peoples’ romantic adventures while traveling through America and Southern England
The Lightning Conductor (1903) tells the story of Molly Randolph's turn-of-the-century adventures as she tours across Europe in an unreliable motor car with her aunt and heroic chauffeur. Part travelogue, part humor, part romance, this epistolary novel promises fun for all.
Although the events of The Lightning Conductor take place over only a few months, from November through January, Molly’s motor adventures don’t end there! After the novel’s enormous success in the American Market (selling over a million copies) and its now-lost movie adaptation, the Williamson's wrote two sequels.
In the Lightning Conductor Discovers America (1916), also published under the alternate title The Lightning Conductress, Molly and friends motor across New England. On the steamship ride to America, Molly meets with a young woman who, for the sake of resolving her family’s debts, has agreed to marry a rich but villainous man when she is really in love with another. Molly and co. intervene to save her fortunes and her love life. Similar in format to The Lightning Conductor, the sequel offers more travelogue, more humor, more romance, more melodrama, and more motor cars (though a good portion also takes place on a steam ship).
Unfortunately, Molly and correspondents quickly lose track of dates when writing their letters, so this novel was not a good candidate for the main Literary Letters channel. Instead, I’ll be releasing it on Side Stories approximately twice a week, starting March 15, 2023.
The second sequel, The Lightning Conductor Comes Back (1933), concerns Molly’s travels through the Southern Counties of England. This time, it is Molly’s cousin whose romantic life is at stake, as she gets to know Molly’s new circle of English friends.
The book is not Public Domain by US law, since it was published after 1926, so it is not available on Project Gutenberg like the first two installments. However, it is out of copyright in England, where the law protects works for 50 years after the death of their author. In this case, Alice Williamson outlived her husband but died the same year this book was published. It is therefore freely available as a pdf from the Bodleian Libraries of The University of Oxford.
Since the book takes place between late March and May, I will be releasing it in installments on Side Stories in Spring 2024.
And, of course, if you can’t wait so long for more early 20th century motor travelogue romances, the Williamson’s had quite a few more in their catalogue, including titles like The Motor Maid (1910), The Car of Destiny (1907), and The Port of Adventure (1913), all available for free (and eReader compatible) on Project Gutenberg.