Overview

Margaret Oliphant (1828-97) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer of the Victorian era who usually wrote as Mrs Oliphant. Her fictional works encompass domestic realism, the historical novel, and tales of the supernatural. As a girl she constantly experimented with writing and in 1849 her first novel Passages in the Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland was published. It was followed in 1851 by Caleb Field, and in that year she met the publisher William Blackwood who invited her to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine. The association would last throughout her lifetime during which she contributed well over 100 articles. In 1852 she married her cousin Frank with whom she had six children, three of whom died in infancy. The family moved to Italy in 1859 for the sake of Frank's health but he died in Rome leaving his wife almost entirely without resources, and on her return to England she was dependent on her literary output to support her three surviving children. She soon established herself as a popular writer and worked hard to sustain this position, but her private life was dogged with sorrow as her remaining children all pre-deceased her. Oliphant wrote over 120 works, mostly novels, but also travel books, biographies, historical works and volumes of literary criticism. Some of her most popular fictional works are the six novels which make up The Chronicles of Carlingford, originally serialised in Blackwood's from 1862-5 prior to book publication. This novella first published in 1890 tells the story of a widow left the management of her late husband's estate and the trusteeship of the children, helped only by her steward, Mr Brown, a young man of a lower class who stays well in the background. After a time a rumour emerges that Mrs Blencarrow's name was seen in the marriage register at Gretna Green, and this rumour is spread by a young local girl who does not, however, recall the name coupled with Mrs Blencarrow's. The implication is that the widow has done something shameful and so has no right to the estate or the guardianship of her own children, and the reader is kept in suspense, wondering what, and how much, will be revealed, and what will be the outcome for Mrs. Blencarrow.

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