The Selected Works of Margaret Oliphant, Part VI

Book excerpt: Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (1828-97) is one of the most important writers of the nineteenth century. She was both prolific and wide ranging in her career which spanned half a century. Primarily known as a novelist Mrs Oliphant is of interest to scholars today both for her wide popularity in her prime and her influential position as reviewer and journalist which saw her become an important critical voice for her generation. Her high profile in the literary world led to savage satirical portrayals in works by Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy and Henry James. This is the most ambitious and substantial scholarly edition of Margaret Oliphant's writings ever undertaken. In six parts and twenty-five volumes all her important fiction plus substantial selections of her criticism and journalism are collected and edited by a prestigious editorial team. The novels contained in Parts V and VI represent some of Margaret Oliphant's most significant work. Darker and more politically motivated than the more comic Chronicles of Carlingford, they show Oliphant at the height of her writing powers. Money, financial crises and social and sexual inequality all feature strongly in these works which find Oliphant sharply critical of materialistic, late-Victorian culture. They mirror her own experiences as a female professional writer having to support her family single-handedly. They also form some of her most popular and enduring works which gained a wide readership through serialization. The significance of Oliphant as a writer can only be fully appreciated by close study of these novels, which bring to completion this major twenty-five-volume scholarly edition.