Margaret Oliphant

Margaret Oliphant 1881, painted by Frederick Augustus Sandys, National Portrait Gallery (London)

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (born April 4, 1828 in Wallyford, Midlothian , Scotland , † June 25, 1897 in Wimbledon , England ) was a Scottish writer. Born Margaret Oliphant Wilson got her curious name from a marriage with her cousin Frank Oliphant. Under her married name Mrs. Oliphant , she was known as a successful writer of popular novels in the 19th century . Margaret Oliphant wrote over 120 works, including novels, short stories , travelogues, historical accounts, biographies and literary criticism . She was a regular contributor to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine . In her posthumously published autobiography , she described her efforts as a single mother and professional writer to support her family and loved ones such as her brother's children. After Margaret Oliphant was long regarded as a secondary writer and mass producer of popular novels and forgotten by the reading public, she is now increasingly recognized by literary scholars as a serious author of the 19th century.

Life

Margaret Oliphant Wilson was born in 1828 to Francis W. Wilson and Margaret Oliphant in Wallyford, a small town in Midlothian, Scotland. Margaret had two older brothers, Frank and Willie. During Margaret's childhood, the family moved first to Lasswade near Edinburgh , then to Glasgow , where Francis Wilson took a job as an employee of the Royal Bank, and in 1838 to Liverpool . Margaret started her first novel at the age of seventeen (later published as Christian Melville ). Through the mediation of her brother Willie, she received her first contract with a publisher, Henry Colburn , in 1849 for the novel Passages in the Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland, of Sunnyside . In 1849 she also began writing for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , so Katie Stewart was published as a serialized novel in the magazine.

In 1849 she also met her cousin Frank Oliphant, an artist and stained glass window designer. The couple married in 1852 and moved to London . Margaret continued her literary activities during her marriage.

Between 1853 and 1858, Oliphant gave birth to five children, but three of them each died shortly after birth. Only their first child, born in 1853, daughter Margaret (Maggie), and their fourth child, born in 1856, son Cyril Francis (Tiddy) survived infancy. As early as 1857, Frank Oliphant showed the first symptoms of tuberculosis . In 1859 the family moved to Italy in the hope that Frank Oliphant's health would improve due to the warmer climate. Margaret Oliphant was now so successful as a writer that she was able to support her sick husband and children with her income. Frank Oliphant died in Rome on October 20, 1859 . The last child together, Francis Romano (Cecco) was only born after his death on December 12, 1859. In 1860 Margaret Oliphant returned to Great Britain with her children .

In 1861 she began the Chronicles of Carlingford novel series . Her writing was now the main source of finance for the family. She increasingly had to support other relatives in need, such as her brother Frank, who suffered financial ruin in 1868 and whose children she took into her household. She also supported her second brother Willie for more than 20 years. She paid for the school fees of her own children and those of her brother Frank. In 1866 Margaret Oliphant moved to Windsor to be near Eton , where her sons attended school. The Windsor house remained the family residence until her death.

The cost of the large household as well as maintenance, school fees for Eton, boarding schools in Germany and tuition fees for Oxford put a strain on the family's budget. Margaret Oliphant therefore felt compelled to write as many literary texts and magazine articles as possible in order to secure the family income. Despite increasing health problems, she continued to write novels into old age. Hard strokes of fate for Margaret Oliphant were the deaths of many of her relatives (her daughter Maggie in 1864, her nephew Frank in 1879, her brother Willie in 1885, her son Tiddy in 1890, her son Cecco in 1894).

Margaret Oliphant died on June 25, 1897 at Wimbledon, London. Her autobiography, which she was working on but not finalizing in her final years, was revised by her niece Denny Oliphant and distant cousin Annie Coghill and published posthumously in 1899 with a few letters.

Create

Margaret Oliphant has written more than 120 works during her career as a writer, including novels, short stories, travelogues, historical treatises and literary criticism. Her best-known novels include Adam Graeme (1852), Magdalen Hepburn (1854), Lilliesleaf (1855), The Laird of Norlaw (1858) and a series of novels entitled The Chronicles of Carlingford , which first appeared in Blackwood's Magazine (1862-1865) ). This series includes Salem Chapel (1863), The Rector , The Doctor's Family (1863), The Perpetual Curate (1864) and Miss Marjoribanks (1866). Other successful novels by Margaret Oliphant include Madonna Mary (1867), Squire Arden (1871), He that will not when he may (1880), Hester (1883), Kirsteen (1890), The Marriage of Elinor (1892) and The Ways of Life (1897). The works The Beleaguered City (1880) and A Little Pilgrim in the Unseen (1882) are two examples of Oliphant's later interest in mysticism .

In addition to novels, Oliphant also wrote texts on factual topics: These include biographies by Edward Irving (1862), Laurence Oliphant (1892) and Richard Sheridan in English Men of Letters (1883). Her diverse historical works and literary reviews include Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II. (1869), The Makers of Florence (1876), A Literary History of England from 1790 to 1825 (1882), The Makers of Venice (1887), Royal Edinburgh (1890), Jerusalem (1891) and The Makers of Modern Rome (1895).

Oliphant was a successful and popular writer during her lifetime. After the tastes of the reading public changed around the turn of the century and after the First World War , her novels were considered outdated and old-fashioned. During her lifetime and after her death, her work was often seen as a mass production by a hack writer . In the 20th century, many of her works were gradually no longer published and thus no longer accessible to the general public. Oliphant and her work attracted attention in the 1930s through Virginia Woolf , who named Oliphant as an example of the fact that female authors had to work under much more difficult circumstances than their male colleagues. Above all, Oliphant should have used her literary talent to continuously produce mass-produced goods that ensured the family's livelihood:

"Mrs Oliphant sold her brain, her admirable brain, prostituted her culture and enslaved her intellectual liberty in order that she might earn her living and educate her children ..."

- Virginia Woolf : Three Guineas (1938), p. 266

This view of Oliphant dominated until the 1970s, to which Oliphant's self-portrayal in her autobiography also contributed. From the 1980s, however, Oliphant was rediscovered by literary scholars as a notable author of the 19th century. Today, Oliphant's work is positively recognized, among other things, for the character drawing of her main female characters, who are often much stronger personalities than their male partners. In the novel Hester z. For example, it is the energy of the heroine Catherine Vernon that saves the family's banking business, which was endangered by male recklessness. The renewed interest in Margaret Oliphant was also evident in the new editions of some of her texts: some of Oliphant's articles appeared in text collections from the 19th century. Some novels and her autobiography were reprinted in critical editions.

Attitude to women's rights

During Margaret Oliphant's lifetime, the question of women's rights, especially the question of women's suffrage, was a hotly debated topic. Oliphant's stance on this shifted from opposition to approval over the years, but she is often remembered as an anti-feminist and conservative writer. This view is mainly due to the fact that her cousin Annie Coghill, while revising her autobiography, quoted from one of her letters, in which she commented on an article on women's suffrage with "mad notion of the franchise for women". In two early articles, The Laws Concerning Women (April 1856) and The Condition of Women (February 1858), Oliphant was critical of the women's rights movement. However, Oliphant was never an outright anti-feminist, although she did not necessarily want the right to vote for herself. A few years later, however, their attitude changed. In 1880 she said publicly that she found it absurd not to have the right to vote when she wanted one.

In a magazine article, The Grievances of Women (1880), Margaret Oliphant expressed sympathy for women's rights activism at the time. However, in this article she focused less on women's suffrage itself and more on changing male behavior: far too often women are treated as second-class people. It would not be recognized that they work as hard as men and take the health risk of childbirth. Unmarried women would be despised.

Works (selection)

First editions

• Katie Stewart, A True Story . Serialized novel. In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , July – December 1852.
• The Life of Edward Irving, Minister of the National Scotch Church, London . Hurst and Blackett, London 1862.
• The Rector and The Doctor's Family . Serialized novel. In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , September 1861-January 1862.
• The Perpetual Curate . Serialized novel. In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , June 1863 – September 1864.
• Agnes . Macmillan, London 1865.
• Miss Majoribanks . Serialized novel. In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , February 1865-May 1866.
• A son of the soil . Serialized novel. In: Macmillan's Magazine , London November 1863 – April 1865.
• Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II . In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , February 1868-August 1869.
• The Story of Valentine and his Brother . In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , January 1874 – February 1874.
• The Curate in Charge . In: Macmillan's Magazine , August 1874-January 1876.
• The Literary History of England 1790-1825 . 1882.
• Hester . Macmillan, London 1883.
• The Ladies Lindores . Serialized novel. In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , April 1882-May 1883.
• Sir Tom . Macmillan, London 1884.
• Two Stories of the Seen and the Unseen . William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh 1885.
• A Country Gentleman and his Family . Macmillan, London 1886.
• The Land of Darkness, along with some Further Chapters in the Experience of the Little Pilgrim . Macmillan, London 1888.
• Lady Car, The Sequel of a Life . Serialized novel. In: Longman’s , March – July 1889.
• Kirsteen, A Story of A Scottish Family Seventy Years Ago . Serialized novel. In: Macmillan's Magazine , August 1889-August 1890.
• Diana Trelawney, The History of a Great Mistake . Serialized novel. In: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , February – July 1892.
• Old Mr Tredgold . Serialized novel. In: Longman’s , June 1895 – May 1896.
• A Widow's Tale, and other Stories . William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh 1898.
• Stories of the Seen and Unseen . William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh 1902.

Modern editions

• Miss Majoribanks (with an introduction by QD Leavis ). Chatto & Windus, London 1969.
• Hester (with an introduction by Jennifer Uglow). Virago Modern Classics, London 1984.
• Kirsteen (with an introduction by Merryn Williams). Dent, Everyman Classics, London 1984.
• The Doctor's Family and other Stories (with an introduction by Merryn Williams). Oxford University Press, Oxford 1986.
• The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant: The Complete Text , edited by Elisabeth Jay. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-818615-0 .
• The selected works of Margaret Oliphant , edited by Joanne Shattock and Elisabeth Jay. Pickering & Chatto, London 2011–2017.

literature

• Elisabeth Jay: Mrs. Oliphant: 'A Fiction to Herself'. A literary life. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-812875-4 .
• Birgit Kämper: Margaret Oliphant's Carlingford Series: An Original Contribution to the Debate on Religion, Class, and Gender in the 1860s and '70s . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2001.
• Margarete Rubik: The Novels of Mrs Oliphant, A Subversive View of Traditional Themes . Peter Lang, New York 1994.
• Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography. Macmillan, Houndsmill, Basingstoke, 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 .

Web links

Commons : Category: Margaret Oliphant Oliphant  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Margaret Oliphant in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Margaret Oliphant  in the German Digital Library
• Works by Margaret Oliphant in the Gutenberg-DE project
• The Margaret Oliphant Fiction Collection

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stephan Regan: The nineteenth-century novel. A critical reader . Routledge, London 2001, ISBN 0-415-23828-5 , pp. 39 .
2. ^ Margarete Rubik: The Novels of Mrs Oliphant, A Subversive View of Traditional Themes . Peter Lang, New York 1996.
3. ↑ Birgit Kämper: Margaret Oliphant's Carlingford Series: An Original Contribution to the Debate on Religion, Class, and Gender in the 1860s and '70s . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2001.
4. ↑ Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography . Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 , pp. 2-4 .
5. ↑ Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography . Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 , pp. 8 .
6. ↑ Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography . Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 , pp. 13-15 .
7. ↑ Elisabeth Jay: Mrs Oliphant: 'A Fiction to Herself'. A literary life . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-812875-4 , pp. 338 .
8. ↑ Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography . Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 , pp. 181 .
9. ↑ Elisabeth Jay: Mrs Oliphant: 'A Fiction to Herself'. A literary life . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-812875-4 , pp. 338-339 .
10. ^ Elisabeth Jay: Introduction . In: Elisabeth Jay (Ed.): The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-818615-0 , pp. viii .
11. ↑ ^{a b} Oliphant, Margaret Oliphant . In: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica . Volume 20 ( wikisource.org [accessed January 30, 2019]).
12. ^ Elisabeth Jay: Introduction . In: Elisabeth Jay (Ed.): The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-818615-0 , pp. xv-xvii .
13. ^ Ina Schabert: English literary history from the perspective of gender studies . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-520-38701-8 , pp. 588 .
14. ↑ Margaret Oliphant: Sensation Novels . In: Stephen Regan (Ed.): The Nineteenth-Century Novel: A Critical Reader . Routledge, London 2001, ISBN 0-415-23828-5 , pp. 39-44 .
15. ↑ Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography . Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 , pp. 106-108 .
16. ^ Margaret Oliphant: The Grievances of Women . In: Fraser's Magazine . May 1880.
17. ↑ Merryn Williams: Margaret Oliphant: A Critical Biography . Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke 1986, ISBN 0-333-37647-1 , pp. 150 .