Margaret Oliphant (1828–1897)
Author of Miss Marjoribanks
About the Author
Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (née Margaret Oliphant Wilson) (4 April 1828 - 25 June 1897), was a Scottish novelist and historical writer who married her cousin, Frank Wilson Oliphant. Oliphant's first novel was published in 1849, Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland. The book dealt show more with the Scottish Free Church movement. Oliphant, during an often difficult life, wrote more than 120 works, including novels, books of travel and description, histories, and volumes of literary criticism. Among the best known of her works of fiction are: Adam Graeme (1852), The Marriage of Elinor (1892), The Ways of Life (1897). She died at Wimbledon, London, on 25 June 1897. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Mrs. Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897)
Series
Works by Margaret Oliphant
The Literary History of England in the End of the Eighteenth and Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (1889) 9 copies
Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside - Scholar's Choice Edition (2009) 6 copies
Merkland, a Story of Scottish Life, by the Author of 'passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland'. (2009) 4 copies
Memoirs and Resolutions of Adam Graeme, of Messgray By the author of "Passages in the life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland,"… (1999) 3 copies
Annals of a publishing house : William Blackwood and his sons, their magazine and friends Volume II 3 copies
Within the Precincts 3 copies
The Literary History of England in the End of the Eighteenth and Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In Three Volumes.… (1882) 3 copies
Margaret Oliphant - The Ways of Life: "It is often easier to justify one's self to others than to respond to the… (2018) 2 copies
The Literary History of England in the End of the Eighteenth and Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (In Three Volumes… (2009) 2 copies
Lillies Leaf: being a concluding series of Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland, etc. 2 copies
Annals of a publishing house: William Blackwood and his sons, their magazine and friends (1974) 2 copies
The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Mrs Oliphant: Volume 1-Including One Novel, 'The Complete Little… (2014) 2 copies
A Little Pilgrim 2 copies
The Second Son 2 copies
Dante. 1 copy
The Life and Times of Queen Victoria - with which is incorporated "The Domestic Life of the Queen" 1 copy
Lucy Crofton 1 copy
The Sisters Bronte 1 copy
The Secret Chamber 1 copy
Cousin Mary 1 copy
Annals of a publishing house: William Blackwood and his sons, their magazine and friends vol 3 1 copy
Whiteladies: Volume 1 1 copy
John, a love story 1 copy
Mercy Philbrick's Choice 1 copy
Oliphant Margaret 1 copy
The Quiet Heart, by the Author of 'katie Stewart'. (Orig. Publ. in Blackwood's Magazine). (2012) 1 copy
The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Mrs Oliphant: Volume 2-Including Two Novellas, 'Old Lady Mary, ' 'a… (2014) 1 copy
Heart and Cross 1 copy
The minister's wife 1 copy
A Son of the Soil. A novel 1 copy
Associated Works
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (2010) — Contributor — 149 copies
The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume One (2016) — Contributor — 138 copies
The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories (The Connoisseur's Collections) (1900) — Contributor — 57 copies
The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women 1800-World War II (1806) — Contributor — 42 copies
The Gentlewomen of Evil: An Anthology of Rare Supernatural Stories from the Pens of Victorian Ladies (1967) — Contributor — 28 copies
A Serious Occupation: Literary Criticism by Victorian Women Writers (2003) — Contributor — 12 copies
The Other voice : Scottish women's writing since 1808 : an anthology (1988) — Contributor — 9 copies
Memoirs of the life of Anna Jameson — Postscript — 2 copies
Gwiazdka Z Duchami 1 copy
Wakacje Wśród Duchów — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Oliphant, Margaret Oliphant Wilson (married name)
Wilson, Margaret Oliphant (birth name)
Melville, Christian (pen name)
Oliphant, Mrs. - Birthdate
- 1828-04-04
- Date of death
- 1897-06-25
- Burial location
- Eton Parish Cemetery, Eton, England
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Wallyford, Haddingtonshire, Scotland, UK
- Place of death
- Wimbledon, London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Florence, Italy
Rome, Italy
London, England, UK
Liverpool, England, UK
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK (show all 8)
Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Lasswade, Midlothian, Scotland, UK - Occupations
- writer
cultural historian
novelist
essayist
autobiographer - Short biography
- Margaret Oliphant Wilson was born in Wallyford, near Musselburgh, Scotland, the daughter of a customs house official. The family moved to Liverpool, England, when she was a child. She began writing as a teenager. In 1852, she married her cousin Francis Oliphant, an artist, and turned to writing to help support them and their seven children. Her first published work was Passages in the Life of Margaret Maitland (1849), and she became a regular contributor to Blackwood's Literary Magazine. Her husband died in 1859 while on a family trip to Italy, leaving Margaret pregnant. John Blackwood sent her funds to enable her to return to England and to relocate to Elie in Fife. She wrote more than 100 novels, biographies, translations, travel books, and collections of short stories during her prolific career. Her best-remembered works are the group of novels known as The Chronicles of Carlingford, which consisted of The Rector and the Doctor’s Family (1863), Salem Chapel (1863), The Perpetual Curate (1864), Miss Majoribanks (1866), and Phoebe Junior (1876). Many of her popular works focused on Scottish life, including The Minister’s Wife (1869) and Kirsteen (1890). She also wrote a volume of supernatural stories, Tales of the Seen and Unseen, and an autobiography that was published posthumously in 1899.
Members
Discussions
Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford 6: Phoebe, Junior in Virago Modern Classics (June 2023)
Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford 5: Miss Marjoribanks in Virago Modern Classics (March 2023)
Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford 3: Salem Chapel in Virago Modern Classics (November 2022)
Victorian Readalong Q3: Hester by Margaret Oliphant in Club Read 2022 (September 2022)
Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford 4: The Perpetual Curate in Virago Modern Classics (August 2022)
Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford 2: The Doctor's Family in Virago Modern Classics (November 2021)
Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford 1: The Executor / The Rector in Virago Modern Classics (November 2021)
Reviews
1.5* I gave up at 60% through despite the fact that this is decently written. I couldn't take any more of Elinor - stupidly, willfully blind to any advice even after she should know better. She just irritated me intensely!
Phoebe, Junior is the granddaughter of the Tozers, pillars of Carlingford’s dissenting congregation, Salem Chapel. Phoebe is the daughter of Phoebe Tozer and Henry Beecham, a dissenting minister who has risen about as far as a dissenting minister can go. Phoebe, Junior is well-educated, well-traveled, and used to London life. An extended stay in Carlingford to care for her ailing grandmother is a shock to her sensibilities, but she rises to the occasion.
Phoebe had made the acquaintance of Ursula May in London. Ursula is a poor relation of the Dorset family, who are also related to the Copperheads. Ursula’s father is the rector of St. Roque in Carlingford. Ursula and Phoebe overcome the class barrier to form a friendship. Their social circle includes Ursula’s clergyman brother, Reginald, Salem Chapel’s interim minster, Mr. Northcote, and Clarence Copperhead, whose father is an influential member of Henry Beecham’s congregation in London.
The novel explores social, economic, and religious differences. The elders in the novel set great store by these differences in status. However, the young people discover that their peers on the other side of the divide aren’t quite the ogres they’ve been warned against all their lives, and they form “unsuitable” attachments before they quite realize what’s happening. The novel could easily have been a romantic comedy if not for the financial pressures that weigh heavily enough on Mr. May for him to succumb to temptation.… (more)
Phoebe had made the acquaintance of Ursula May in London. Ursula is a poor relation of the Dorset family, who are also related to the Copperheads. Ursula’s father is the rector of St. Roque in Carlingford. Ursula and Phoebe overcome the class barrier to form a friendship. Their social circle includes Ursula’s clergyman brother, Reginald, Salem Chapel’s interim minster, Mr. Northcote, and Clarence Copperhead, whose father is an influential member of Henry Beecham’s congregation in London.
The novel explores social, economic, and religious differences. The elders in the novel set great store by these differences in status. However, the young people discover that their peers on the other side of the divide aren’t quite the ogres they’ve been warned against all their lives, and they form “unsuitable” attachments before they quite realize what’s happening. The novel could easily have been a romantic comedy if not for the financial pressures that weigh heavily enough on Mr. May for him to succumb to temptation.… (more)
An Oxford Theological College controls the dispensation of the living for the parish of Brentburn, and has given it to a College fellow who, after two years, pleads ill health and retires to Italy, keeping the bulk of the income and paying the rest to the curate who runs the parish. Cecil St John, the curate, is an unworldly man, dedicated to his parishioners, unambitious, and happy to remain as a curate, despite he uncertainty of his position. His much-loved wife manages the household capably and frugally, and Cecil trusts in God to provide for the future of his two daughters, Cicely and Mab. When Cecil's wife dies, a governess, Miss Brown, is employed to look after the girls and to manage the household. She is as ineffectual as Cecil, and when the girls leave home and go to school, incompetence reigns. When the girls return to look after their father, they find disaster.
The Curate in Charge has a number of important themes. It's a feminist novel: Cicely is an intelligent and capable person, far more so than her father, and far more concerned about the family's future, but she has to follow Cecil's direction. Eventually her independence of action, and need to do what she thinks is right, prove more important to her than her feminine role and social position. It's about the failure of the Church to ensure that livings are given to men who can and will manage a parish, its failure to reward men like Cecil, who can serve others all their lives only to be left destitute. It's about people with power, including those in the church hierarchy, who respect others only for their money and social connections.
A worthwhile read. Recommended.… (more)
The Curate in Charge has a number of important themes. It's a feminist novel: Cicely is an intelligent and capable person, far more so than her father, and far more concerned about the family's future, but she has to follow Cecil's direction. Eventually her independence of action, and need to do what she thinks is right, prove more important to her than her feminine role and social position. It's about the failure of the Church to ensure that livings are given to men who can and will manage a parish, its failure to reward men like Cecil, who can serve others all their lives only to be left destitute. It's about people with power, including those in the church hierarchy, who respect others only for their money and social connections.
A worthwhile read. Recommended.… (more)
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 239
- Also by
- 41
- Members
- 2,860
- Popularity
- #8,972
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 85
- ISBNs
- 482
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 11
Rosalind is Grace's stepdaughter, and calls her mother because Grace is the only mother Rosalind has ever known. She is loyal to Grace despite wicked rumours, most of them perpetrated by the family nurse who brought up Rosalind and her four half-brothers and sisters. The nurse has tried to poison the younger children's minds against their mother, and has carried malicious stories to Grace's husband.
Somewhere I read that this was Margaret Oliphant's favourite of her books. It has less humour than the Carlingford series because Grace is such a tragic figure, and so ill-treated, but there is some in the sketches of the minor characters, particularly Aunt Sophy. I was very much engaged because I had to find out what would happen to Grace and Rosalind.… (more)