Best known work

• Miss Marjoribanks, 1866

Other well known work(s)

• Hester, 1883

Genres

• Fiction - Novels
• Fiction - Short Stories
• Biography / Autobiography
• Politics / Philosophy / Essays

Nom de plume

Margaret Oliphant Wilson, Oliphant

Social class

Middle class

Parental background

Her father was a bank clerk. Oliphant was educated at her home by her mother.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 38
• Marital status: Widowed
• Number of children: 2

Physical description

According to her autobiography, Oliphant's hair turned grey in her thirties. An unknown writer in The Wrexham Advertiser (Dec 17 1892) describes Oliphant, by now in her seventies, as having "a broad expansive brow, grey hair, and I think her head is large, indicating power, for one must always trust a large head for that [...]. Her kind pleasant eyes, well-formed nose, mouth, and chin are most agreeable to look upon, and without being handsome, she has a personality which I think would attract me."

Did you know?

Oliphant was so prolific that, according to a letter she wrote to her publisher William Blackwood, she apparently wore a hole in her right forefinger that would not heal.

Additional information

The Victorian Web offers a comprehensive guide to Oliphant's life and works, including a very useful chronology. John Stock Clarke has a wonderful Bibliography of Secondary Sources 1848-2005 at the Victorian Fiction Research Guides.