Jadavpur University

M.Phil. Research Scholar, Department of English

About

It has been the most remarkable cultural phenomenon of the last few decades to have had rediscovered and revalued the Victorians. There are still such discoveries to be made - in particular, surely the novelist Margaret Oliphant deserves to be one of them. Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (1827-97) was one of the most accomplished novelists of the nineteenth century, publishing about ninety-six works of fiction besides many uncollected short stories and works of non-fiction which include biographies, literary histories, historical sketches of major cities and translations. Carlyle and Gladstone paid tribute to her non-fiction. Darwin was allegedly an avid reader of her novels. Tennyson, commenting towards the end of his life on her prolific output, told his son that 'she was nearly always worth reading'. Robert Louis Stevenson confessed that he had been moved to tears by "A Beleaguered City" and J. M. Barrie was a prime mover in the effort to secure Mrs. Oliphant an adequate memorial. Yet for much of the twentieth century her name has been almost unknown and her work largely unavailable. My research attempts to contribute to the 'Oliphant Cause' and is intended to re-explore the gems of her genius for the academia and the larger reading public.