Customer Reviews

Miss Marjoribanks (Zodiac)

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4 star:		(2)
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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.

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.

"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.

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. I came to love the character of Miss Lucilla Marjoribanks. She's a little over the top, and Oliphant has fun with Lucilla's extensive charm and "strength of mind". I found myself laughing as Lucilla shaped society in her town. The book is a fun and easy read...definitely recommended.

What a great find, and refreshing as it lacks much of the high melodrama so common in most 19th century literature. Miss Lucilla Marjoribanks comes home from school determined to be a comfort to dear papa and sets the good doctor and the entire town on their ears, with her brilliant manipulations.

The characters are wonderful, the story has lots of ups and downs that Lucilla is always capable of meeting with great ingenuity and fortitude. There are many wonderful moments and lots of laughter along with a few tears. Higly recommended, particularly for anyone who enjoys 19th century English literature.

This book is really amusing if you understand not to take it at face value. It is a Victorian social satire, but still funny for a modern reader. I have read it several times now, and each time find more humor in it. I don't want to spoil any of the plot for you, but if you are looking for something a little different and enjoyable to read, this book is worth the time and money.

Maybe I've maxed out on 19th Century British Lit inane young women. I really looked forward to this, but was disappointed. One of the back cover comments reads "A feminist Trollope..." (about Oliphant) - not even close. Trollope is far, far better than this. There are some amusing parts but the characters and plot just don't live up to the hype.

I have done extensive research on Margaret Oliphant. She is one of the most productive women writers of her time and yet, often is overlooked. I urge anyone to read her work and self-titled biography.

In Miss Marjoribanks, the heroine returns from school to live with her widowed father in the quiet village of Carlingford. Her frequently-avowed purpose is 'to be a comfort to dear papa.' Her true 'mission' is to reform the pitiable mess that passes for society in Grange Lane (where those in the upper ranks of Carlingford society live) through her own wise and benevolent leadership. Extremely heavy in irony, the book continually refers to Lucilla Marjoribanks' gift for social politics as 'genius,' and repeatedly describes her efforts in military or imperial terms.

The back cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Miss Marjoribanks quotes Q.D. Leavis's statement that Lucilla Marjoribanks is "the missing link... between Jane Austen's Emma and George Eliot's Dorothea Brooke, and `more entertaining, more impressive and more likeable than either.'" This is an overstatement, to be sure (Charlotte Yonge's The Clever Woman of the Family is my own choice for missing link - see my Amazon review of that title). Miss Marjoribanks is slightly and superficially akin to Miss Brooke and Miss Woodhouse; but as a work of literature Miss Marjoribanks can hardly be classed with Emma or Middlemarch -- nor are Emma or Dorothea likely to be supplanted by Lucilla in the hearts and minds of most readers. Indeed, Lucilla seems two-dimensional by comparison with Austen's and Eliot's heroines -- hardly more than a caricature of a woman. Perhaps it was Oliphant's intention to show that when women with brains and abilities are prevented from exercising their talents in any but the narrowest domestic and social spheres, they are reduced to mere caricatures of human beings. In any case, taken on its own terms, Miss Marjoribanks is an entertaining read, but not, in my view, Oliphant's best.