Margaret Oliphant

Lis Jay (Oxford Brookes University)
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Margaret Oliphant was born in Wallyford, Midlothian, the only daughter and youngest child of Francis W. Wilson, an excise clerk, and his wife, Margaret Oliphant: the family moved to Liverpool in 1838. Margaret received a literary education from her mother, whose pride in her daughter's talent was tempered by the conviction that it must not exempt her from the performance of a woman's domestic duties. It was while nursing her mother, and recovering from a broken engagement, that she wrote her first novel at the age of 17: this was subsequently published, without her permission, as

Christian Melville

(1856) by her middle brother, Willie, himself an aspiring novelist.

The beginning of Willie's slide into chronic alcoholism and debt overshadowed the excitement of the publication of her first

676 words

Citation: Jay, Lis. "Margaret Oliphant". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3412, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3412 Margaret Oliphant 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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