Margaret Oliphant Victorian Novelist

Margaret Oliphant Victorian novelist (1828-1897)

Margaret Oliphant (1860's)

Margaret Oliphant was born in Scotland and lived there until she was 10 years old, then her family moved to England. She spent time living in Scotland and England. She contributed over 100 articles to Blackwood's Magazine, and scholars are aware of 176 novels and stories written by her. She also wrote some non-fiction, including an article about the Brontes, travel books, historical and literary pieces and Scottish folklore including a non fiction writing about Kellie Castle, ancestral homeland of the Oliphant family.

Kellie Castle Ancestral Seat of the Oliphant Family, Fife, Scotland

Three of her 6 children died in infancy and her husband died of consumption (tuberculosis). She became a widow with three children to support. She lost two of her sons in their 30's and wrote about her feelings and the afterlife of her beliefs interwoven in stories such as the five Little Pilgrim Stories (1882-1888), and The Land of Suspense (1897) written after the death of her son Cyril.

As a Victorian woman, Oliphant was not a part of the stereotype of a fainting Victorian woman, in that she, as a widow, supported her family, and was an author. Miss Majorbanks which she wrote in 1865 is considered a funny tale of a Victorian woman that stands typical conventions on their head.

This small write-up is not intended to be an in depth look at her life or her literary works, which are many and worthy of praise, but she is remembered here as the author of nine classic ghost stories: The Secret Chamber, A Beleaguered City, Earthbound, The Open Door, The Wizard's Son, The Lady's Walk, Old Lady Mary, The Portrait, and The Library Window, featured in the collection: Stories of the Seen and Unseen (1881). 

Quotes from The Open Door and The Portrait:

"This is not what I meant to say; but you know the meaning better than I. Some one-who can speak to you only by me- speaks to you by me; and I know that you understand."

"I stood for a moment looking around me feebly, feeling myself begin to babble with stammering lips, which was the alternative of shrieking, and which I seemed to choose as a lesser evil."

"My heart sank into a stillness so sudden that it made me faint. The light swam in my eyes; everything went round with me. I kept upright only by my hold upon the chair."

For a more in depth look at Margaret Oliphant and her works see: http://www.oliphantfiction.com/

Source for the wonderful picture of Margaret Oliphant in Victorian dress and for a short biographical sketch see:                                                        

http://www.costumecocktail.com/2016/10/18/margaret-oliphant-wilson-oliphant-1860s/