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MARGARET OLIPHANT OLIPHANT (1828-1897)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 84 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARGARET OLIPHANT OLIPHANT (1828-1897)  ,
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British novelist and
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historical writer, daughter of Francis Wilson, was born at Wallyford, near
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Musselburgh, Midlothian, in 1828 . Her childhood was spent at Lasswade (near
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Dalkeith),
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Glasgow and Liverpool . As a girl she constantly occupied herself with
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literary experiments, and in 1849 published her first novel, Passages in the
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Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland . It dealt with the Scottish
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Free Church
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movement, with which Mr and Mrs Wilson both sympathized, and had some success . This she followed up in 1851 with Caleb Field, and in the same
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year met Major Blackwood in
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Edinburgh, and was invited by him to contribute to the famous Blackwood's
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Magazine . The connexion thus early commenced lasted during her whole lifetime, and she contributed considerably more than too articles to its pages . In May 1852 she married her cousin, Frank Wilson Oliphant, at
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Birkenhead, and settled at Harrington Square, in
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London . Her
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husband was an artist, principally in stained glass . He had very delicate
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health, and two of their children died in
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infancy, while the
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father himself
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developed alarming symptoms of consumption . For the
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sake of his health they moved in
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January 1859 to Florence, and thence to Rome, where Frank Oliphant died . His wife,
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left almost entirely without resources, returned to England and took up the burden of supporting her three children by her own literary activity . She had now become a popular writer, and worked with amazing industry to sustain her position .

Unfortunately, her

home life was full of sorrow and disappointment . In January 1864 her only daughter died in Rome, and was buried in her father's
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grave . Her
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brother, who had emigrated to
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Canada, was shortly afterwards involved in
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financial ruin, and Mrs Oliphant offered a home to him and his children, and added their support to her already heavy responsibilities . In 1866 she settled at Windsor to be near her sons who were being educated at
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Eton . This was her home for the rest of her life, and for more than
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thirty years she pursued a varied literary career with courage scarcely broken by a series of the gravest troubles . The ambitions she cherished for her sons were unfulfilled . Cyril Francis, the elder, died in 189o, leaving a Life of
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Alfred de Musset, incorporated in his
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mother's
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Foreign
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Classics for
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English Readers . The younger, Frank, collaborated with her in the Victorian Age of English Literature and won a position at the British Museum, but was rejected by the doctors . He died in 1894 . With the last of her children lost to her, she had but little further
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interest in life . Her health steadily declined, and she died at
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Wimbledon, on the 25th of
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June 1897 . In the course of her long struggle with circumstances, Mrs Oliphant produced more than 120
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separate
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works, including novels, books of travel and description, histories and volumes of literary criticism .

Among the best known of her works of fiction are

Adam Graeme (1852), Magdalen Hepburn (1854), Lilliesleaf (1855), The Laird of Norlaw (1858) and a series of stories with the collective title of The Chronicles of Carlingford, which, originally appearing in Blackwood's Magazine (1862-1865), did much to widen her reputation . This series included
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Salem
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Chapel (1863), The Rector; and the Doctor's
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Family (1863), The Perpetual Curate (1864) and
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Miss Marjoribanks (1866) . Other successful novels were Madonna Mary (1867),
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Squire Arden (1871), He that will not when he may (188o), Hester (1 883) ,Kirsteen (189o), The
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Marriage of Elinor (1892) and The Ways of Life (1897) . Her tendency to mysticism found expression in The Beleaguered City (188o) and A Little
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Pilgrim in the Unseen (1882) . Her
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biographies of
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Edward Irving (1862) and Laurence Oliphant (1892), together with her life of Sheridan in the "English Men of Letters " (1883), have vivacity and a sympathetic touch . She also wrote historical and critical works of considerable variety, including Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II . (1869), The Makers of Florence (1876), A Literary
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History of England from i790 to 1825 (1882), The Makers of Venice (1887), Royal Edinburgh (189o), Jerusalem (1891) and The Makers of
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Modern Rome(1895), while at the time of her
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death she was still occupied upon Annals of a
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Publishing House, a record of the progress and achievement of the
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firm of Blackwood, with which she had been so long and honourably connected . Iler Autobiography and Letters, which
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present a touching picture of her domestic anxieties, appeared in 1899 .

End of Article: MARGARET OLIPHANT OLIPHANT (1828-1897)
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