Johnny Warren's Wife

About the Book

Guin, a Jewish girl in a gentile school, is sexually abused by her father.  There is a possible relationship with the wealthy Purdue family.  She is betrothed to Johnny Warren, whose father owns a jewelry shop. Mr. Warren trains her in the jewelry skills and trade.  She discovers that her father is not her natural father.

She is successful at designing and producing fine jewelry.  Johnny is jealous and he has poor business habits.  Guin and Mr. W conspire to save the store from bankruptcy. Mr. W wills the business to Guin, the property to Johnny.

Johnny begins to batter Guin.  As a result of her warped history, Guin begins to lose conventional ethics.  She makes an alliance with thief Molly Pinchert who runs a gang of child pickpockets.  Banker Andros, an amateur artist who wants to draw her portrait in the nude, seduces Molly, offering a needed bank loan.  She is relieved of male restraint and becomes a free person.

Johnny opens a store of his own.  He steals from Guin’s shop.  Johnny attacks Guin, but in their struggle she wounds him with a knife.  He dies.  Guin is spirited out of the shop by one of Molly’s girls.

The partnership with Molly makes Guin rich.  She becomes interested in the Women’s Movement.  She dallies with young men Molly brings her and has an affair with Lancelot Watkins. They spend a holiday in France.  She has sex with Molly, but is discovered by her daughters and Reverend Longwood’s daughter.  They hound Guin out of Fleet Market.

Lance marries.  A new shop in Mayfair succeeds.  A boy is injured in a wagon accident in front of shop.  Guin takes him in, teaches him to read and write, also the jewelry craft.  Lance’s wife dies in a sporting accident.

Guin copies a stolen brooch, is caught and goes to gaol.  Lance rescues her, and they escape to France. Guin opens a shop in Paris.

About the Author

Murray Levine has written seven novels, attended NYU, Harvard, and Rutgers. He was a clothing manufacturer, a buyer and management executive in several department stores, an independent retailer, an advertising executive, an English professor, and is now retired to a community in Florida and is president of the homeowners association