Mrs Oliphant

Miss Marjoribanks is the sixth of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. It was first published 'The Chronicles of Carlingford' in serialized form in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine from February 1865. It follows the exploits of its heroine, Lucilla Marjoribanks, as she schemes to improve the social life of the provincial English town of Carlingford. Margaret Oliphant was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually...

It is natural to suppose that the arrival of the new Rector was a rather exciting event for Carlingford. It is a considerable town, it is true, nowadays, but then there are no alien activities to disturb the place-no manufactures, and not much trade. And there is a very respectable amount of very good society at Carlingford. To begin with, it is a pretty place-mild, sheltered, not far from town; and naturally its very reputation for good society increases...

Phoebe, Junior' is the last novel in Oliphant's 'Chronicles of Carlingford' originally published in 1876. Phoebe Beecham's father is the Dissenting minister of a large, wealthy London chapel. (Her mother, born Phoebe Tozer of Carlingford, was a character in an earlier Carlingford novel Salem Chapel.) Phoebe "Junior" is well educated, and has been raised to have the manners of a lady. When she goes on a long visit to her shop-keeper grandparents in...

The Perpetual Curate is a novel written by Margaret Oliphant and originally published in 1863. It is the fifth of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. This witty, entertaining novel has remained one of Mrs. Oliphant's most popular. The story is about Frank Wentworth, the perpetual curate in the Anglican church. The story revolves around Frank and his family, his love for Lucy Wodeworth, and at least one mysterious visitor...

Salem Chapel is the fourth of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. Originally published in 1862. Young Arthur Vincent is a Dissenting minister beginning his ministry at Salem Chapel in Carlingford. He is intellectual and idealistic - not prepared for a middle class congregation whose social level is that of shopkeepers and tradespeople. He starts out fairly well but goes off track as he becomes enamored of the beautiful Lady...

Margaret Oliphant's novel 'A House in Bloomsbury' was originally published in 1894. Margaret Oliphant was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. During her career she wrote more than 120 works, including novels travelogues, histories and volumes of literary criticism. Two of her better-known fictional works are Miss Marjoribanks (1866) and Phoebe Junior (1876). Many of the earliest books, particularly those...

This early novel tells the story of Hester Southcote, a girl who has been raised by a bitter father to require "justice" of others, rather than sympathy or pity or even love. Her father is squire of Cottiswoode in Cambridgeshire; but their way of life is overturned when an unknown, but rightful, heir comes forward. Hester takes on her father's bitterness as they start a new life in Cambridge. Later she marries and believes she has found happiness;...

The village of Watcham is not a village in the ordinary sense of the word, and yet it is a very pretty place, with a charming picturesque aspect, and of which people say, 'What a pretty village!' when they come upon its little landing-place on the riverside, or drive through its old-fashioned green, where some of the surrounding houses look as if they had come out of the seventeenth century, and some as if they had come out of the picture-books of...

Colonel and Mrs. Kingsward have been travelling in Germany with their three eldest children, for the health of Mrs. Kingsward. Just after the Colonel returns to London, their daughter Bee becomes engaged to Aubrey Leigh, a young man of independent means. But a vindictive "lady" writes to Colonel Kingsward, enclosing a note on which she has forged a date, claiming Aubrey is under a moral obligation to marry her. Thus Colonel Kingsward forbids Bee's...

Margaret Oliphant's novel 'The House on the Moor' was first published in 1861. Susan and her brother Horace live a lonely life on Lanmoth Moor in Cumbria. Their mother died long ago, and their father is a bitter, controlling recluse who shows them little love. Susan has a sweet nature, but Horace bears bitterness and hatred towards everyone. Their father is bitter about a will, but why? When Susan meets Roger Musgrave they become attracted to each...