Returning home to tend her widowed father Dr Marjoribanks, Lucilla soon launches herself into Carlingford society, aiming to raise the tone with her select Thursday evening parties. Optimistic, resourceful and blithely unimpeded by self-doubt, Lucilla is a superior being in every way, not least in relation to men. 'A tour de force...full of wit, surprises and intrigue...We can imagine Jane Austen reading "Miss Marjoribanks" with enjoyment and approval in the Elysian Fields' - Q. D. Leavis. Leavis declared Oliphant's heroine Lucilla to be the missing link in Victorian literature between Jane Austen's "Emma" and George Eliot's "Dorothea Brook" and 'more entertaining, more impressive and more like able than either'.
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About the Author
Margaret Oliphant (1828-97) was a prolific Scots writer, author of over 100 books and innumerable articles. Early widowed, she was compelled to write for a living. She is best remembered for her 'Chronicles of Carlingford' series, which is set in a quiet country town near London. Religious themes predominate but the books are sharp and humorous. Elisabeth Jay has written a critical 'Biography of Margaret Oliphant' and edited Gaskell's 'Life of Charlotte Bronte' for Penguin Classics.
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64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unacknowledged gem!,
By
This review is from: Miss Marjoribanks (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
This must be one of the funniest books I've ever read--I hadn't laughed out loud like this since Catch-22. The character of Miss Marjoribanks (that's pronounced "Marchbanks") is used by Oliphant both as a vehicle for social satire in the Victorian community and as an instrument to examine female modes of power in the Victorian home. The scene in which Miss Marjoribanks figuratively usurps her father's role as patriarch of the house by appropriating his place at the breakfast table is hilarious. Oliphant's book is wonderfully enjoyable and furtively serious--it may be light in tone, but it reveals a great deal about how a resourceful Victorian woman might seek modes and expressions of power within parameters that are very limiting.The main character of Miss Marjoribanks is not intended to "grow" or "develop"--part of the pleasure of her characterization and her story is in witnessing how her single-minded mania as social director of her community compells her to overcome the obstacles thrown in her way by the novel's narrative. Why should we arbitrarily expose this book to aesthetic standards created by a handful of canonical novels? Miss Marjoribanks's characterization is as valid as any found in Austen or Trollope (though not necessarily as great as the best of them)--we must keep in mind that there was much more to Victorian fiction than what is revealed in the small quantity of canonized examples still read today. Oliphant was immensely popular in her day, she was Queen Victoria's favorite writer, and there were many contemporary critics who considered her to be one of the best novelists of that period. In short, Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks is a comic masterpiece, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any reader of 19th-century British fiction.
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and fetching,
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This review is from: Miss Marjoribanks (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
If you were to cross Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse with E. F. Benson's Lucia, the result (psychologically as well as chronologically) would be Margaret Oliphant's triumphant queen of Carlingford society, Lucilla Marjoribanks. Determined to show everyone an entertaining time (ostensibly "to be a comfort to dear Papa," even though her father tends to withdraw entirely from her noisy gatherings), the self-centered but always ingenious Lucilla engineers social triumph after social triumph in this very amusing mid-Victorian novel. There were many moments when I laughed out loud, or was genuinely surprised by Lucilla's cleverness in overcoming momentary catastrophes. This is the perfect book for anyone who has loved Austen, Trollope, or Elzabeth Gaskell's WIVES AND DAUGHTERS.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
amusing but mild,
By Brenda Jo Mengeling (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Miss Marjoribanks (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
"Miss Marjoribanks" is set up in a mock epic style following the social conquering of Carlingford by Lucilla Marjoribanks when returns to her hometown after years in school and on the Grand Tour. The omniscent narrator sets the epic tone, and this more than the plot or character development carries the story along. Lucilla's work to bring order to the chaos of Carlingford social life causes her mostly success with a few small failures thrown in, but she doesn't seem to ever grow in awareness as do the heroines of Jane Austen's or Anthony Trollope's novels. This lack of character development and absence of a strong plot made this novel less satisfying than those of Trollope, Austen, Fielding and the like. But the narration is amusing and makes the book readable and moderately enjoyable.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Miss Marjoribanks lost her mother when she was only fifteen, and when, to add to the misfortune, she was absent at school, and could not have it in her power to soothe her dear mamma's last moments, as she herself said. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nice clergyman, level eyebrows Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Marjoribanks, Grange Lane, Barbara Lake, Grove Street, General Travers, Colonel Chiley, Lady Richmond, Miss Bury, Miss Lucilla, Tom Marjoribanks, Mount Pleasant, Miss Brown, Rose Lake, Lucilla Marjoribanks, Sir John, Mary Jane, School of Design, John Brown, Major Brown, Miss Lake, George Street, Miss Marjorihanks, Blue Boar, Mary Chiley, Maria Brown New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Miss Marjoribanks lost her mother when she was only fifteen, and when, to add to the misfortune, she was absent at school, and could not have it in her power to soothe her dear mamma's last moments, as she herself said. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nice clergyman, level eyebrows Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Marjoribanks, Grange Lane, Barbara Lake, Grove Street, General Travers, Colonel Chiley, Lady Richmond, Miss Bury, Miss Lucilla, Tom Marjoribanks, Mount Pleasant, Miss Brown, Rose Lake, Lucilla Marjoribanks, Sir John, Mary Jane, School of Design, John Brown, Major Brown, Miss Lake, George Street, Miss Marjorihanks, Blue Boar, Mary Chiley, Maria Brown New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
100
books
cite this book:
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- Q. D. Leavis: Collected Essays: Volume 3 by Q. D. Leavis on 22 pages
- The New Nineteenth Century: Feminist Readings of Underread Victorian Fiction (Wellesley Studies in Critical Theory, Literary History and Culture) by Barbara Leah Harman on 9 pages
- The New Nineteenth Century: Feminist Readings of Underread Victorian Fiction (Wellesley Studies in Critical Theory, Literary History and Culture) by Barbara Leah Harman on 5 pages
- Women and Literature in Britain 1800-1900 by Joanne Shattock on 5 pages
- Real: The Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature by Herbert Grabes on 4 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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