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As a Scottish woman and expatriate, Mrs. Oliphant (1828-97) began her prolific writing career removed in many ways from the center of Victorian literary life. Widowed early, she became keenly aware of the discrepancy between society's assumptions about women's roles and her own position as a female breadwinner in the male-dominated world of nineteenth-century publishing. This lucid and comprehensive biography considers the way in which a particular woman writer perceived her own life, and the wider question of whether women writers have been well-served by the mythological structures of male biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Scholarly study based on personal interest
Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) was Scotch by nationality.She published her first novel in 1849 at age twenty one and by the end of her life had nearly 100 novels to her credit.Oliphant also published books of history, biography and the supernatural, as well as innumerable periodical articles. She was a leader among Victorian novelists, though she never attained the status or financial success of some of the major 19th century English novelists.Critics usually consider her "Chronicles of Carlingford" series of novels as her most enduring fiction.Margaret Oliphant was widowed early in life.From her youth to the last years of her old age she was driven to write by the necessity of making money to support a never-ending procession of family members and relatives who were either unfortunate or were never-do-wells, as well as her own somewhat undisciplined use of money.Margaret Oliphant has long fascinated me for her sheer perseverance and productivity.The author of this work, Elisabeth Jay, brings to this study a personal interest on a scholarly foundation. The volume is well documented with notes and bibliography.Jay had earlier published her edition of Margaret Oliphant's Autobiography and Letters. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Margaret Oliphant was a 19th-century novelist and author of "The Doctor's Family" and "The Beleaguered City". As a widow she struggled to combine the professional life of prolific novelist, biographer and reviewer with the roles of mother and breadwinner for an ever-widening circle of dependents. Best known for her "Chronicles of Carlingford" series, Margaret Oliphant wrote her autobiography over three decades from the mid-1860s onwards, and its fragmentary form does not disguise its literary qualities. It is a moving account of her efforts to support herself, her children and two brothers, one a bankrupt, the other an alcoholic, through her writing, and to sustain herself against the grief of losing the surviving three of her six children. This new edition restores for the first time the full text of the autobiography, more than a quarter of which has never been published before, containing barbed comments on her contemporaries and her most intimate reflections upon the tragedies which beset her. ... Read more

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Margaret Oliphant was a prolific and versatile writer, biographer, and reviewer whose career spanned the latter half of the nineteenth century. Author of essays such as “The Condition of Women” and “The Grievances of Women,” she was also a prominent voice on the “woman question.” Oliphant wrote her autobiographical manuscripts over a 30-year period. After she died, her two editors recomposed their relative’s material into a conventional memoir and suppressed more than a quarter of it. Based on the original manuscripts, the Broadview edition restores the missing text. The result is a more intimate portrait of a woman capable of scathing irony, but one also expressing the depths of her anger and grief at the tragedies that beset her. Her autobiographical musings were each promoted by her urge to think through some difficult turning points in a life where she had to struggle to combine the role of professional writer and artist with that of mother and breadwinner for!an ever growing household of dependents. ... Read more