It is natural to suppose that the arrival of the new Rector was a rather exciting event for Carlingford. It is a considerable town, it is true, nowadays, but then there are no alien activities to disturb the place-no manufactures, and not much trade. And there is a very respectable amount of very good society at Carlingford. To begin with, it is a pretty place-mild, sheltered, not far from town; and naturally its very reputation for good society increases...

Miss Marjoribanks is the sixth of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. It was first published 'The Chronicles of Carlingford' in serialized form in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine from February 1865. It follows the exploits of its heroine, Lucilla Marjoribanks, as she schemes to improve the social life of the provincial English town of Carlingford. Margaret Oliphant was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually...

The Perpetual Curate is a novel written by Margaret Oliphant and originally published in 1863. It is the fifth of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. This witty, entertaining novel has remained one of Mrs. Oliphant's most popular. The story is about Frank Wentworth, the perpetual curate in the Anglican church. The story revolves around Frank and his family, his love for Lucy Wodeworth, and at least one mysterious visitor...

Phoebe, Junior' is the last novel in Oliphant's 'Chronicles of Carlingford' originally published in 1876. Phoebe Beecham's father is the Dissenting minister of a large, wealthy London chapel. (Her mother, born Phoebe Tozer of Carlingford, was a character in an earlier Carlingford novel Salem Chapel.) Phoebe "Junior" is well educated, and has been raised to have the manners of a lady. When she goes on a long visit to her shop-keeper grandparents in...

Margaret Oliphant's novel 'A House in Bloomsbury' was originally published in 1894. Margaret Oliphant was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. During her career she wrote more than 120 works, including novels travelogues, histories and volumes of literary criticism. Two of her better-known fictional works are Miss Marjoribanks (1866) and Phoebe Junior (1876). Many of the earliest books, particularly those...

The Open Door, and The Portrait: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen was published in 1881. Both stories will captivate the reader with their mysterious occurrences. In The Open Door a sense of suspense intensifies as the horrifying environment unfolds and events heighten the imagination of the reader. An excerpt reads, "It was close to us, the vacant door-way in it going out straight into the blackness outside. The light showed the bit of wall, the...

Kate Courtney, fifteen, is an heiress with a house in the country - and a rather inflated idea of what her position entails. But she has no one who cares anything about her. She believes she has found happiness when she goes to live with her aunt Mrs. Anderson and her cousin Ombra (whose name means Shadow) in a cottage on the Isle of Wight. But Ombra does not feel the same fondness - she had been the center of attention in her little world before...

Published in 1883, this biography of Sheridan is the sole volume in the English Men of Letters series written by a woman. Her portrait of the Irish politician, poet, and playwright sharply examines all eccentricities, both good and bad of the man who wrote the great comedy "The School for Scandal."

Mary loves her husband Major Ochterlony, and their marriage is happy - except when the fidgety Major periodically becomes obsessed with some unwelcome idea which he insists on seeing through, no matter how foolish or hurtful to Mary. They are in India, far from home, when he has his worst idea yet - that they must remarry, as he fears that their earlier "Scotch marriage" could be difficult to prove. This action brings gossip and shame on Mary, and...

And who is this young widow of yours whom I hear so much about? I understand Lucy's rapture over any stranger; but you, too, mother-" "I too-well, there is no particular witchcraft about it; a nice young woman has as much chance with me as with any one, Ralph-" "Oh, if it's only a nice young woman-" "It's a great deal more," said Lucy. "Why, Miss Jones at the school is a nice young woman-don't you be taken in by mother's old-fashioned stilts. She...