Margaret Oliphant’s Chronicles
of Carlingford (first published in Blackwood’s Magazine) deal with the
lives of the inhabitants of a fictional English town – the domestic dramas of arrivals,
departures, romances and deaths, played against a realistic backdrop, painted with
the lightest of brush strokes. The Rector
tells the story of a man who picks up the responsibilities of a parish preacher
for the first time, after years sequestered as a Fellow of All Souls College in
Oxford, while in The Doctor’s Family a
young man comes to understand that independence from familial burdens and
duties is not necessarily a recipe for happiness. Both stories are parabolic
while maintaining their realism, and both centre on flawed male protagonists,
receiving an emotional education.
Margaret Oliphant |
For general readers:
Oliphant interests me because she is interested in people. Carlingford is geographically
non-specific, and its layout unclear, but its society vividly imagined and skilfully
conveyed. Her characters feel real – their loves and lives are tempered with
practical considerations and their choices are morally complex. This means that
this is certainly not escapist fiction, however chocolate box Carlingford may
first appear. Nor is it fast-paced and high drama, groundbreaking in its style
and subject matter. Yet Oliphant is a confident writer, who does what she does
with conviction and so commands attention. These stories are best described as ‘thoughtful’
and they are best read thoughtfully.
For students:
George Eliot’s Scenes from a Clerical
Life (1857) and Silas Marner (1861), and
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (1851) are
natural points of comparison for the depiction of close knit semi-rural communities.
But Carlingford looks beyond itself – to the world of Oxford academia, or to
the far-distant colonies, which both receive noteworthy treatment. The Rector in particular will also be of
interest to those considering clergymen and the place of religion in Victorian fiction
– Oliphant’s men of God are primarily that and it is religious, not societal or
romantic, considerations which bring the rector to emotional crisis in this story. The two stories are also deeply concerned with
a variety of social issues affecting women in the period – for instance, the absence
of a sufficient number of marriageable men (something which affects the fabric
of Carlingford life and the less prominent characters here like Miss Wodehouse
or Miss Majoribanks) – and so could be recommended to social historians.
Margaret Oliphant is most often come across by literature undergraduates as a
stern critic of other writers and , because of this, it’s well worth reading
the kind of novels she produced herself.
Have you read any of the Chronicles
of Carlingford? Let me know here, on Facebook or by tweeting @SVictorianst!
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