Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant

“The original order and structure of the manuscript have been restored, revealing new aspects of Oliphant’s intentions and artistry.” — Joseph H. O’Mealy, University of Hawaii

After the death of Margaret Oliphant—the prolific nineteenth-century novelist, biographer, essayist, reviewer, and prominent voice on the “woman question”—two well-intending relatives took the autobiographical manuscripts she composed over a thirty-year period, and recomposed them to suit the model of a conventional memoir. In the process, they suppressed more than a quarter of the material. Based on the original manuscripts, the Broadview edition now makes available the missing text in its original order, and the restored Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant portrays a woman of scathing irony, anger, and grief.

Part of Broadview’s Nineteenth-Century British Autobiographies series, this edition also includes extensive excerpts from Oliphant’s diaries.