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The Chronicles of Carlingford #omnibus
The Rector and The Doctor's Family
"She watched him as women often do watch men ... The incomprehensibleness of women is an old theory, but what is that to the curious wondering observation with which wives, mothers and sisters watch the other unreasoning animal ..!"
These two short novels raise the curtain on an entrancing new world for all who love Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Trollope's "Barsetshire Chronicles". The setting is Carlingford, a small town not far from London in the 1800s. The cast ranges from tradesmen to aristocracy and clergy ...
The Rector opens as Carlingford awaits the arrival of their new rector. Will he be high church or low? And--for there are numerous unmarried ladies in Carlingford--will he be a bachelor? After fifteen years at All Souls the Rector fancies himself immune to womanhood: he is yet to encounter the blue ribbons and dimples of Miss Lucy Wodehouse.
The Doctor's Family introduces us to the newly built quarter of Carlingford where young Dr Rider seeks his living. Already burdened by his improvident brother's return from Australia, he is appalled when his brother's family and sister-in-law, Nettie, follow him to Carlingford. But the susceptible doctor is yet to discover Nettie's attractions--and her indomitable Australian will.
These two short novels raise the curtain on an entrancing new world for all who love Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Trollope's "Barsetshire Chronicles". The setting is Carlingford, a small town not far from London in the 1800s. The cast ranges from tradesmen to aristocracy and clergy ...
The Rector opens as Carlingford awaits the arrival of their new rector. Will he be high church or low? And--for there are numerous unmarried ladies in Carlingford--will he be a bachelor? After fifteen years at All Souls the Rector fancies himself immune to womanhood: he is yet to encounter the blue ribbons and dimples of Miss Lucy Wodehouse.
The Doctor's Family introduces us to the newly built quarter of Carlingford where young Dr Rider seeks his living. Already burdened by his improvident brother's return from Australia, he is appalled when his brother's family and sister-in-law, Nettie, follow him to Carlingford. But the susceptible doctor is yet to discover Nettie's attractions--and her indomitable Australian will.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1861
218 people want to read
About the author
Mrs. Oliphant
1,066 books172 followersMargaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (née Margaret Oliphant Wilson) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works encompass "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural".
Margaret Oliphant was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, and spent her childhood at Lasswade (near Dalkeith), Glasgow and Liverpool. As a girl, she constantly experimented with writing. In 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland which dealt with the Scottish Free Church movement. It was followed by Caleb Field in 1851, the year in which she met the publisher William Blackwood in Edinburgh and was invited to contribute to the famous Blackwood's Magazine. The connection was to last for her whole lifetime, during which she contributed well over 100 articles, including, a critique of the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
Margaret Oliphant was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, and spent her childhood at Lasswade (near Dalkeith), Glasgow and Liverpool. As a girl, she constantly experimented with writing. In 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland which dealt with the Scottish Free Church movement. It was followed by Caleb Field in 1851, the year in which she met the publisher William Blackwood in Edinburgh and was invited to contribute to the famous Blackwood's Magazine. The connection was to last for her whole lifetime, during which she contributed well over 100 articles, including, a critique of the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
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January 23, 2022
For the life of me, I don’t understand why a number of classics have Introductions to them at the beginning of the book which give the whole damn story away.
Such is the case for this Virago Modern Classic by Mrs. Oliphant. The Introduction is by Penelope Fitzgerald, a very fine author whose books include the Booker Prize award, ‘Offshore’ (1979). I as a matter of habit forgo reading the Introduction of a book until I am finished with the classic itself. And Ms. Fitzgerald wrote a very nice essay about the two pieces that make up this work. ‘The ‘Rector’ is a novella and ‘The Doctor’s Family’ is novel-length (on the short side which is rare for Mrs. Oliphant’s oeuvre).
I won’t give anything away except I will say I was more engaged with reading the 4th work in this Chronicles of Carlingford series, ‘Miss Marjoribanks’. Miss Marjoribanks was a quite interesting (and to me funny) character, and the characters around her, the rich & snobbish folk of that Victorian era, were also interesting in their own usually stuck-up ways. And the story had some humor to it. These stories were certainly not humorous. Plus I didn’t like the rector and I came not to like any of the protagonists in the second story (The Doctor’s Family) either.
But I have the rest of the Chronicles and plan on reading it in its entirety.
I will say this, and I did not notice it in ‘Miss Majoribanks’. Some of her writing is longwinded. At least in ‘The Doctor’s Family’. Get a load of this sentence (give yourself maybe an hour if you want to read it...):
• 'Meetings which always ended in pain were best avoided, except at those intervals when longing love could not, even under that penalty, refuse itself the gratification; but the dismal life which was lighted up only by those unfrequent, agitating, exasperating encounters, and which flowed on through a hundred petty toilsome duties to the fretful accompaniment of Susan’s iterations and the novel persecution now carried on by the children, was naturally irksome to the high-spirited and impatient nature which, now no longer heart-whole or fancy-free, did not find it so easy to carry its own way triumphantly through those heavy clogs of helplessness and folly.' 🤨
Good God!
Reviews:
• https://thecaptivereader.com/2011/08/...
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• http://preferreading.blogspot.com/201...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
• http://desperatereader.blogspot.com/2...
• The Secret Victorianist: Review: The Chronicles of Carlingford: The Rector and The Doctor's Family, Margaret Oliphant (1863)
Such is the case for this Virago Modern Classic by Mrs. Oliphant. The Introduction is by Penelope Fitzgerald, a very fine author whose books include the Booker Prize award, ‘Offshore’ (1979). I as a matter of habit forgo reading the Introduction of a book until I am finished with the classic itself. And Ms. Fitzgerald wrote a very nice essay about the two pieces that make up this work. ‘The ‘Rector’ is a novella and ‘The Doctor’s Family’ is novel-length (on the short side which is rare for Mrs. Oliphant’s oeuvre).
I won’t give anything away except I will say I was more engaged with reading the 4th work in this Chronicles of Carlingford series, ‘Miss Marjoribanks’. Miss Marjoribanks was a quite interesting (and to me funny) character, and the characters around her, the rich & snobbish folk of that Victorian era, were also interesting in their own usually stuck-up ways. And the story had some humor to it. These stories were certainly not humorous. Plus I didn’t like the rector and I came not to like any of the protagonists in the second story (The Doctor’s Family) either.
But I have the rest of the Chronicles and plan on reading it in its entirety.
I will say this, and I did not notice it in ‘Miss Majoribanks’. Some of her writing is longwinded. At least in ‘The Doctor’s Family’. Get a load of this sentence (give yourself maybe an hour if you want to read it...):
• 'Meetings which always ended in pain were best avoided, except at those intervals when longing love could not, even under that penalty, refuse itself the gratification; but the dismal life which was lighted up only by those unfrequent, agitating, exasperating encounters, and which flowed on through a hundred petty toilsome duties to the fretful accompaniment of Susan’s iterations and the novel persecution now carried on by the children, was naturally irksome to the high-spirited and impatient nature which, now no longer heart-whole or fancy-free, did not find it so easy to carry its own way triumphantly through those heavy clogs of helplessness and folly.' 🤨
Good God!
Reviews:
• https://thecaptivereader.com/2011/08/...
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• http://preferreading.blogspot.com/201...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2012/...
• http://desperatereader.blogspot.com/2...
• The Secret Victorianist: Review: The Chronicles of Carlingford: The Rector and The Doctor's Family, Margaret Oliphant (1863)
October 8, 2023
My first Victober read of 2023 and my first Margaret Oliphant! The book I have is actually two stories in one. The Rector is a 35-page short story set in the world of Carlingford and it introduces us (very briefly) to the Wodehouse family and the perpetual curate with High Church leanings, Frank Wentworth. The Doctor's Family is also set in Carlingford and is about young Dr. Edward Rider who has set up a medical practice in the working class part of the town.
I enjoyed both stories very much. Each one has a moral dilemma at its heart so there's a real poignancy and humanity to each story. In The Rector, there is a new rector in Carlingford who has spent the last 15 years cloistered amongst his fellow male academics at Oxford. When he takes on duties as a pastor, he realizes that very different skills are required. I really loved this story, and I think it would make for fabulous discussion. (I want to convince Kate that we should read and discuss it in our Patreon group.)
In The Doctor’s Family novella, Dr Rider’s family includes the doctor's much older brother, Fred, and his wife Susan, his wife's sister Nettie, and Fred and Susan’s three young children. Fred had emigrated to Australia, so it's rather a shock to poor Edward when Fred shows up unannounced, moves into his house in Carlingford, and does nothing but smoke and read novels. We get a hint that there's some shadiness to Fred. A couple chapters in, Susan and Nettie show up from Australia with the three children in tow. Nettie is a masterful manager of the family. It seems like someone has to be. Fred is slothful and unwilling to find work and Susan is a rather horrible mixture of Lady Bertram, Mary Musgrove, and Hyacinth Clare: indolent, always fancying herself ill, and emotionally manipulative. The family settles in Carlingford and the Doctor's life gets more and more tangled up with his newly arrived family.
I enjoyed both stories very much. Each one has a moral dilemma at its heart so there's a real poignancy and humanity to each story. In The Rector, there is a new rector in Carlingford who has spent the last 15 years cloistered amongst his fellow male academics at Oxford. When he takes on duties as a pastor, he realizes that very different skills are required. I really loved this story, and I think it would make for fabulous discussion. (I want to convince Kate that we should read and discuss it in our Patreon group.)
In The Doctor’s Family novella, Dr Rider’s family includes the doctor's much older brother, Fred, and his wife Susan, his wife's sister Nettie, and Fred and Susan’s three young children. Fred had emigrated to Australia, so it's rather a shock to poor Edward when Fred shows up unannounced, moves into his house in Carlingford, and does nothing but smoke and read novels. We get a hint that there's some shadiness to Fred. A couple chapters in, Susan and Nettie show up from Australia with the three children in tow. Nettie is a masterful manager of the family. It seems like someone has to be. Fred is slothful and unwilling to find work and Susan is a rather horrible mixture of Lady Bertram, Mary Musgrove, and Hyacinth Clare: indolent, always fancying herself ill, and emotionally manipulative. The family settles in Carlingford and the Doctor's life gets more and more tangled up with his newly arrived family.
April 1, 2025
I hope that I enjoy the rest of the series more because I already own them. I found this sooo wordy.
December 16, 2012
These days of course a series is a very popular thing, both with readers and booksellers. A series of books of course are by no means a new thing. Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire chronicles for example have delighted readers for many a long year. Less well known perhaps though from a similar era, are the Chronicles of Carlingford by Mrs (Margaret) Oliphant. Written in the 1860’s they then spent many years out of print. The Rector (a short story) and The Doctor’s Family a short novel– were published together by Virago Modern Classics and are the first two stories in the series. The books are now best obtained either on Kindle or in second hand VMC’s – I have three of the next four books in the series (2 VMC’s and a penguin classic) and hope it will be as easy to pick up number 5, books 2, 3 and 4 are fairly chunky, this delightful little book serving as something of an introduction to Carlingford – much in the same way as The Warden does with Barsetshire.
The Rector of the opening story is Mr Proctor – a middle aged clergyman who having spent the previous fifteen years cloistered happily away at All Souls, now takes up the living in Carlingford, in part to provide a comfortable home for his ageing mother. Mr Proctor is somewhat unused to the world is certainly unprepared for the blue ribboned prettiness of Miss Lucy Wodehouse.
“The Rector was not vain – he did not think himself an Adonis; he did not understand anything about the matter, which indeed was beneath the consideration of a Fellow of All-Souls. But have not women been incomprehensible since ever there was in this world a pen with sufficient command of words to call them so? And is it not certain that, whether it may to their advantage or disadvantage, every soul of them is plotting to marry somebody?”
In ‘The Doctor’s Family’ we meet the young Doctor Edward Rider, a bachelor who lives in the newer part of Carlingford, with a blue plaque outside his door bearing the legend M.R.C.S he ministers to those afraid of the word physician. It is Dr Marjoribanks in the older part of the town who has the practice Dr Rider coverts. However Edward’s elder and dissolute brother Fred has arrived back from Australia unexpectedly taking up idle residence in Edward’s house. Edward is incensed by his brother’s idle selfishness, and yet is little expecting to be faced by his brother’s wife Susan, three children and sister-in-law Nettie, arrived from the colonies to seek him out. Nettie is a small but determined young woman, she manages her family completely as Fred’s wife is as lazy and useless as he is himself. Only Nettie is able to manage the children, and it is only Nettie who has any money on which the family can live. Nettie secures the family some lodgings and her sister and brother-in-law much to Edward Riders disgust are happy to live upon her goodness and be managed absolutely by her. Dr Rider’s feeling towards Nettie inevitable lean towards romance and he is appalled that Nettie should be quite so content to sacrifice herself to others.
“Edward Rider stared at his brother, speechless with rage and indignation. He could have rushed upon that listless figure, and startled the life half out of the nerveless slovenly frame. The state of mingled resentment, disappointment, and disgust he was in, made every particular of this aggravating scene tell more emphatically. To see that heavy vapour obscuring those walls which breathed of Nettie – to think of this one little centre of her life, which always hitherto had borne in some degree the impress of her womanly image, so polluted and vulgarised, overpowered the young man’s patience. Yet perhaps he of all men in the world had least right to interfere.”
I absolutely loved this book. I hope it doesn’t spoil it for future readers to say that the ending is of course very satisfactory. Readers today may like to think ourselves oh so more sophisticated than in the 1860’s – but really? don’t we all rather like a happy ending? I am already a fan of Carlingford, and hope I find the next much fatter instalments of the series just as charming and readable.
The Rector of the opening story is Mr Proctor – a middle aged clergyman who having spent the previous fifteen years cloistered happily away at All Souls, now takes up the living in Carlingford, in part to provide a comfortable home for his ageing mother. Mr Proctor is somewhat unused to the world is certainly unprepared for the blue ribboned prettiness of Miss Lucy Wodehouse.
“The Rector was not vain – he did not think himself an Adonis; he did not understand anything about the matter, which indeed was beneath the consideration of a Fellow of All-Souls. But have not women been incomprehensible since ever there was in this world a pen with sufficient command of words to call them so? And is it not certain that, whether it may to their advantage or disadvantage, every soul of them is plotting to marry somebody?”
In ‘The Doctor’s Family’ we meet the young Doctor Edward Rider, a bachelor who lives in the newer part of Carlingford, with a blue plaque outside his door bearing the legend M.R.C.S he ministers to those afraid of the word physician. It is Dr Marjoribanks in the older part of the town who has the practice Dr Rider coverts. However Edward’s elder and dissolute brother Fred has arrived back from Australia unexpectedly taking up idle residence in Edward’s house. Edward is incensed by his brother’s idle selfishness, and yet is little expecting to be faced by his brother’s wife Susan, three children and sister-in-law Nettie, arrived from the colonies to seek him out. Nettie is a small but determined young woman, she manages her family completely as Fred’s wife is as lazy and useless as he is himself. Only Nettie is able to manage the children, and it is only Nettie who has any money on which the family can live. Nettie secures the family some lodgings and her sister and brother-in-law much to Edward Riders disgust are happy to live upon her goodness and be managed absolutely by her. Dr Rider’s feeling towards Nettie inevitable lean towards romance and he is appalled that Nettie should be quite so content to sacrifice herself to others.
“Edward Rider stared at his brother, speechless with rage and indignation. He could have rushed upon that listless figure, and startled the life half out of the nerveless slovenly frame. The state of mingled resentment, disappointment, and disgust he was in, made every particular of this aggravating scene tell more emphatically. To see that heavy vapour obscuring those walls which breathed of Nettie – to think of this one little centre of her life, which always hitherto had borne in some degree the impress of her womanly image, so polluted and vulgarised, overpowered the young man’s patience. Yet perhaps he of all men in the world had least right to interfere.”
I absolutely loved this book. I hope it doesn’t spoil it for future readers to say that the ending is of course very satisfactory. Readers today may like to think ourselves oh so more sophisticated than in the 1860’s – but really? don’t we all rather like a happy ending? I am already a fan of Carlingford, and hope I find the next much fatter instalments of the series just as charming and readable.
October 14, 2009
Two sweet little novellas set in Carlingford, Oliphant's imaginary Victorian town. In "The Doctor's Family," young Dr. Rider is burdened with a small practice and a good-for-nothing older brother. When his brother's family tracks him down and requires his assistance, Dr.Rider is annoyed--until he falls in love with his sister-in-law's sister, the willful workhorse Nettie. Stubborn, practical, and devoted to her sentimental sister, Nettie refuses to be considered a martyr while simultaneously refusing to be anything but selfless. I was surprised by how much I liked Nettie.
"The Rector" follows Morley Proctor, a man who has lived all his life in the cloisters of All-Souls. After spending his youth in the driest of studies, he goes to Carlingford in pursuit of a slightly wider life--he hopes for a family of his own. But his decades in academia have not prepared him for the exigicies of being the pastor of a small town. He lacks any ability to relate to his fellow humans, or bring them comfort through Christ. Mr.Proctor struggles with the question of whether to return to his passionless, useless cloistered life or to stay in Carlingford, overwhelmed, overworked, but striving toward becoming a better human being.
"The Rector" follows Morley Proctor, a man who has lived all his life in the cloisters of All-Souls. After spending his youth in the driest of studies, he goes to Carlingford in pursuit of a slightly wider life--he hopes for a family of his own. But his decades in academia have not prepared him for the exigicies of being the pastor of a small town. He lacks any ability to relate to his fellow humans, or bring them comfort through Christ. Mr.Proctor struggles with the question of whether to return to his passionless, useless cloistered life or to stay in Carlingford, overwhelmed, overworked, but striving toward becoming a better human being.
September 19, 2020
Having read and adored Miss Marjoribanks (pronounced, surprisingly, “Marchbanks”) this past year, I returned to Mrs Oliphant’s Carlingford novels to begin at the beginning with these two shorter but equally riveting comedies of love, manners, and sexual anxiety. Mrs Oliphant was disparaged by both George Eliot and Virginia Woolf, a one-two punch that would stagger any reputation. But I hope a reappraisal and a new century of keen delight and celebration might be in store for this generous, funny, and hard-working writer who quite possibly made her distinguished heiresses and critics rather jealous with her gifts for characterization and plot. (A previous reviewer share this link which is a gem: http://www.oliphantfiction.com/index.php.)
September 20, 2020
Being two shorter works The Rector, not even novella length, and the more substantial The Doctor’s Family.
In The Rector, the old Rector (profoundly Low Church, “lost in the deepest abysses of Evangelicalism”) has died. Mr Proctor - Fellow of All-Souls Oxford - has come to replace him but finds the practice of ministry very different from the academic life he has left. When his aged mother joins him she divines instantly that at least one of the churchwarden’s two daughters will be “intended” for him. He is terrified and reflects, “But have not women been incomprehensible since ever there was in this world a pen with sufficient command of words to call them so? …. And is it not certain that .... every soul of them is plotting to marry somebody? …. Who could fathom the motives of a woman?” Meanwhile his mother, “watched him as women do often watch men, waiting till the creature should come to itself again and might be spoken to.” That fear, combined with Mr Proctor’s total inability to cope with the needs of a dying parishioner and the demands of sociability lead him to reconsider his position.
The Doctor’s Family.
Dr Edward Rider, not the pre-eminent physician in Carlingford - that would be Dr Marjoribanks - has the medical care of the less well-off of Carlingford society. His only burden is that of his waster of a brother Fred, back from the colonies under a cloud, indolent to a fault and an almost permanent resident in an easy-chair. Two ladies arrive at the door one day and Edward is astonished to find that Fred has a wife, Susan - and three more or less uncontrolled children - come over from Australia with Susan’s sister Nettie, who in turn has just about the means to support them. Nettie is the practical one, arranging lodgings for the ensemble in St Roques’s cottage, and undertaking all the work of the household. Edward becomes enamoured of Nettie, but her sense of duty to her sister’s family is so strong that she will not contemplate leaving them for anything.
It is reasonably clear from Edward’s first encounter with Nettie where all this will be going. There are of course minor complications to the narrative, a potential rival for Nettie’s affections in the person of the permanent curate of St Roques’s Church, a tentative leaning towards Miss Marjoribanks while Edward works through his irritation at Nettie’s refusal of his own, but even when Fred dies, drowned in a canal after a night in the pub, Nettie will not abandon her duty. Only the entrance of Richard Chatham, another Australian, (un)distinguished by a luxuriant beard - not common in Carlingford in those days, only Mr Lake has such an affectation and his is very much subdued by comparison - changes the dyamic.
Oliphant’s style is wordy, she was a nineteenth century novelist after all, but her eye for the human heart, for its predicaments, is sure.
In The Rector, the old Rector (profoundly Low Church, “lost in the deepest abysses of Evangelicalism”) has died. Mr Proctor - Fellow of All-Souls Oxford - has come to replace him but finds the practice of ministry very different from the academic life he has left. When his aged mother joins him she divines instantly that at least one of the churchwarden’s two daughters will be “intended” for him. He is terrified and reflects, “But have not women been incomprehensible since ever there was in this world a pen with sufficient command of words to call them so? …. And is it not certain that .... every soul of them is plotting to marry somebody? …. Who could fathom the motives of a woman?” Meanwhile his mother, “watched him as women do often watch men, waiting till the creature should come to itself again and might be spoken to.” That fear, combined with Mr Proctor’s total inability to cope with the needs of a dying parishioner and the demands of sociability lead him to reconsider his position.
The Doctor’s Family.
Dr Edward Rider, not the pre-eminent physician in Carlingford - that would be Dr Marjoribanks - has the medical care of the less well-off of Carlingford society. His only burden is that of his waster of a brother Fred, back from the colonies under a cloud, indolent to a fault and an almost permanent resident in an easy-chair. Two ladies arrive at the door one day and Edward is astonished to find that Fred has a wife, Susan - and three more or less uncontrolled children - come over from Australia with Susan’s sister Nettie, who in turn has just about the means to support them. Nettie is the practical one, arranging lodgings for the ensemble in St Roques’s cottage, and undertaking all the work of the household. Edward becomes enamoured of Nettie, but her sense of duty to her sister’s family is so strong that she will not contemplate leaving them for anything.
It is reasonably clear from Edward’s first encounter with Nettie where all this will be going. There are of course minor complications to the narrative, a potential rival for Nettie’s affections in the person of the permanent curate of St Roques’s Church, a tentative leaning towards Miss Marjoribanks while Edward works through his irritation at Nettie’s refusal of his own, but even when Fred dies, drowned in a canal after a night in the pub, Nettie will not abandon her duty. Only the entrance of Richard Chatham, another Australian, (un)distinguished by a luxuriant beard - not common in Carlingford in those days, only Mr Lake has such an affectation and his is very much subdued by comparison - changes the dyamic.
Oliphant’s style is wordy, she was a nineteenth century novelist after all, but her eye for the human heart, for its predicaments, is sure.
December 19, 2016
The Doctor's Family and Other Stories by Mrs Oliphant; VMC; ROOT; (4*)
(a): The Executor: I thoroughly enjoyed this. Lovely but rather Victorian story, aren't they all lovely? (4*)
(b): The Rector: Again I thoroughly enjoyed this Victorian short. I love how Mrs. Margaret Oliphant uses her words. (4 1/2*)
(c): The Doctor's Family; An enjoyable story about a young woman who takes care of & provides for her sister & her family of 3 children. Yearning for but refusing to admit that she wants a life of her own, she goes about her duties with a happy heart daily. I love a happy ending (sometimes) and I think our protagonist did as well. (4*)
Lovely writing from Mrs. Oliphant.
(a): The Executor: I thoroughly enjoyed this. Lovely but rather Victorian story, aren't they all lovely? (4*)
(b): The Rector: Again I thoroughly enjoyed this Victorian short. I love how Mrs. Margaret Oliphant uses her words. (4 1/2*)
(c): The Doctor's Family; An enjoyable story about a young woman who takes care of & provides for her sister & her family of 3 children. Yearning for but refusing to admit that she wants a life of her own, she goes about her duties with a happy heart daily. I love a happy ending (sometimes) and I think our protagonist did as well. (4*)
Lovely writing from Mrs. Oliphant.
April 24, 2023
3.5*
The Rector - The arrival of the new Rector, Morley Proctor, among the “good society” of the small and respectable town of Carlingford, is a very important event. He is replacing the longstanding, now deceased, Mr Bury who as a ‘Low’ Evangelical Rector, had singlehandedly emptied Salem Chapel. One afternoon, the “creaking” old Mr Wodehouse brings Reverend Proctor to his house for lunch - this unannounced call is much to the chagrin of his daughters, referred to as Miss Wodehouse and Lucy - and all are at a loss for conversation and common ground. The shy and awkward new Rector is distraught by this embarrassing encounter, and hurries back to his bookshelves, as soon as possible.
Later it emerges that Rector Proctor has brought his mother to live with him, old Mrs Proctor - a dutiful son fulfilling his pet scheme to make her mistress of his house. Mrs Proctor, a wonderfully inquistive character, is delighted to meet the Wodehouses and she sets about encouraging Morley to make one of them his wife. For Morley, nothing could be further from his thoughts and vefore long he has packed his bags and returned to Oxford, resettling his mother in a cottage nearby at St Giles!
The Rector is just 40 pages long and is the first story in The Carlingford Chronicles and I found it lighthearted and entertaining. It was sometimes not that easy to read as sentences were often long and convoluted.
The Doctor’s Family - At the other end of Carlingford, in the slightly less respectable new quarter, Young Doctor Edward Rider has taken a house and is setting about establishing a practice and the confidence in him, of his patients. But he has a skeleton in his cupboard, an unwelcome visitor - languishing in an upstairs room - his lazy brother Fred. Not long thereafter, Fred’s wife Susan, their three children and Susan’s sister Nettie arrive. They have not heard from Fred for more than a year and they have come all the way from Australia to find him. Dr Rider didn’t even know Fred had married.
Rider falls instantly in love with Nettie who, because she has money, is the self appointed guardian of Fred and his family. Her duty is borne with grace and she is uncomplaining, but nonetheless she does not feel herself free to do as she wishes, rebuking Dr Rider at every turn. She spends all of her time looking after the children while Fred and Susan remain utterly incapable, dependent and with miserable dispositions.
They cannot all stay with Dr Rider so they move to lodgings at St Roque, with Landlady Mrs Smith, paid for by Nettie. The situation is intolerable to the Dr who sees how Nettie is being used and who is also very jealous of the affection she bestows on the family. He also becomes convinced he has a rival suitor in the form of the young curate, Reverend Wentworth. Despite several declarations from Rider he is consistently refused by Nettie. Then Fred doesn’t come home one night and is found by Nettie early the next morning, he has drowned. Edward proposes again and Nettie refuses again, this time due to her sister's cries against him. But her demeanour is changing and she is no longer sure that she should be looking after Susan and her children. Nettie and Rider are both by now, too hurt and angry in each other’s company and rarely see each other.
Later a Bushman, Mr Chatham arrives and offers to accompany Susan and Nettie back to Australia. It is Susan’s wish to go but Nettie is resolved to stay in Carlingford. Susan and Chatham announce they are getting married and they return to Australia. Nettie is now free and marries Rider. The young child, Freddy refuses to go with his mother and he stays with Rider and Nettie.
Whilst a large part of the story is focused on the Doctor, there is some detail about Reverend Wentworth, who although he is seen by Rider as having a romantic interest in Nettie, is actually hoping to make a match with Miss Wodehouse.
Again, I did enjoy the story but it was a little difficult to read sometimes.
The Rector - The arrival of the new Rector, Morley Proctor, among the “good society” of the small and respectable town of Carlingford, is a very important event. He is replacing the longstanding, now deceased, Mr Bury who as a ‘Low’ Evangelical Rector, had singlehandedly emptied Salem Chapel. One afternoon, the “creaking” old Mr Wodehouse brings Reverend Proctor to his house for lunch - this unannounced call is much to the chagrin of his daughters, referred to as Miss Wodehouse and Lucy - and all are at a loss for conversation and common ground. The shy and awkward new Rector is distraught by this embarrassing encounter, and hurries back to his bookshelves, as soon as possible.
Later it emerges that Rector Proctor has brought his mother to live with him, old Mrs Proctor - a dutiful son fulfilling his pet scheme to make her mistress of his house. Mrs Proctor, a wonderfully inquistive character, is delighted to meet the Wodehouses and she sets about encouraging Morley to make one of them his wife. For Morley, nothing could be further from his thoughts and vefore long he has packed his bags and returned to Oxford, resettling his mother in a cottage nearby at St Giles!
The Rector is just 40 pages long and is the first story in The Carlingford Chronicles and I found it lighthearted and entertaining. It was sometimes not that easy to read as sentences were often long and convoluted.
The Doctor’s Family - At the other end of Carlingford, in the slightly less respectable new quarter, Young Doctor Edward Rider has taken a house and is setting about establishing a practice and the confidence in him, of his patients. But he has a skeleton in his cupboard, an unwelcome visitor - languishing in an upstairs room - his lazy brother Fred. Not long thereafter, Fred’s wife Susan, their three children and Susan’s sister Nettie arrive. They have not heard from Fred for more than a year and they have come all the way from Australia to find him. Dr Rider didn’t even know Fred had married.
Rider falls instantly in love with Nettie who, because she has money, is the self appointed guardian of Fred and his family. Her duty is borne with grace and she is uncomplaining, but nonetheless she does not feel herself free to do as she wishes, rebuking Dr Rider at every turn. She spends all of her time looking after the children while Fred and Susan remain utterly incapable, dependent and with miserable dispositions.
They cannot all stay with Dr Rider so they move to lodgings at St Roque, with Landlady Mrs Smith, paid for by Nettie. The situation is intolerable to the Dr who sees how Nettie is being used and who is also very jealous of the affection she bestows on the family. He also becomes convinced he has a rival suitor in the form of the young curate, Reverend Wentworth. Despite several declarations from Rider he is consistently refused by Nettie. Then Fred doesn’t come home one night and is found by Nettie early the next morning, he has drowned. Edward proposes again and Nettie refuses again, this time due to her sister's cries against him. But her demeanour is changing and she is no longer sure that she should be looking after Susan and her children. Nettie and Rider are both by now, too hurt and angry in each other’s company and rarely see each other.
Later a Bushman, Mr Chatham arrives and offers to accompany Susan and Nettie back to Australia. It is Susan’s wish to go but Nettie is resolved to stay in Carlingford. Susan and Chatham announce they are getting married and they return to Australia. Nettie is now free and marries Rider. The young child, Freddy refuses to go with his mother and he stays with Rider and Nettie.
Whilst a large part of the story is focused on the Doctor, there is some detail about Reverend Wentworth, who although he is seen by Rider as having a romantic interest in Nettie, is actually hoping to make a match with Miss Wodehouse.
Again, I did enjoy the story but it was a little difficult to read sometimes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2017
The first of the Chronicles of Carlingford
Characters running through the 3 stories here are – Bessie Christian, dropped by Doctor Rider in “The Executor,” briefly appears in “The Doctor’s Family,” Dr Rider becomes a main character in “The Doctor’s Family,” the Wodehouse sisters are minor characters in all 3, with hints that there is the development of a love story between the curate and Lucy, and the curate plays minor roles in the 2nd and 3rd. There are plot development, too, because Dr Rider, unable to bring himself to propose to Bessie in the first story because he would then take on her helpless parents, finds ironically in the 3rd that he is saddled with a helpless brother, and then when his sister in law arrives and takes his brother and dependants off his hands he is again faced with the fact that he loves a woman but cannot bring himself to take on her responsibilities too.
MO is an anti-romantic, the notes at the front say. Having seen Bessie make a marriage of comfort rather than passion means I read “The Doctor’s Family” with more eagerness than the average romance, because I was not at all certain that Nettie and Doctor Rider would end up together, or even that it would be a good idea.
Nettie and the doctor are drawn very well. Nettie sticks by her family regardless, but her fierce proud spirit and her insistence that there is no choice means she is not some tiresome good female doing her duty. Her dreadful sister complains about Nettie’s organisational powers, complaining that she manages things without consulting Susan’s wishes; are we to believe that Nettie can be a bit irritating? Or do we disregards Susan’s opinion, as she is a selfish, self-centred parasite? And interestingly, when she is relieved of it quite abruptly, she is distressed at being suddenly unnecessary. The doctor dashes round in his curricle thinking of sweeping Nettie off her feet, and raging when she is given no respect by her relatives but in fact is unheroic in his inability to accept her and her family together. He is better in a medical crisis, taking on the extra duties that a death in the family requires, and whilst this is not explored, it suggests that their marriage could succeed if they split their work according to ability and temperament.
I like the use of details in their homes. I like the description of the cottage, with its ecclesiastical details that in fact make the apartment of the Smiths, the landlord and landlady, like a cell. I like the way in which Doctor Rider starts to see his own bachelor house in a different light when he comes home to find Nettie sitting in his chair, and he reacts too to Fred taking possession of his room (and later, of Nettie’s parlour) and Mrs Smith coming into his parlour. Nettie’s space in the cottage gradually gets taken over too, so while her marriage to the doctor may not be perfect, I wonder if she could have slid from competent manager of her sister’s family to drudge.
I like, too, that the “lower” classes have names and characters, like Mrs Smith, whose speech suggests a lower class socially but who has a nice turn of phrase at times, and Mary, the doctor’s domestic, who might be a little slovenly or might merely be unable to be everywhere at once to attend the doctor’s erratic demands.
And although some situations might seem hard to relate to in this century – like the duty to look after a lazy relative or the demands of a rector’s calling, a slightly closer look will show they are not so different from our times after all. We still wonder, as a society rather than as individuals, whether to help those who won’t help themselves. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who has wondered whether to stay in a job they are not equipped to do well in order not to let down others around them.
Characters running through the 3 stories here are – Bessie Christian, dropped by Doctor Rider in “The Executor,” briefly appears in “The Doctor’s Family,” Dr Rider becomes a main character in “The Doctor’s Family,” the Wodehouse sisters are minor characters in all 3, with hints that there is the development of a love story between the curate and Lucy, and the curate plays minor roles in the 2nd and 3rd. There are plot development, too, because Dr Rider, unable to bring himself to propose to Bessie in the first story because he would then take on her helpless parents, finds ironically in the 3rd that he is saddled with a helpless brother, and then when his sister in law arrives and takes his brother and dependants off his hands he is again faced with the fact that he loves a woman but cannot bring himself to take on her responsibilities too.
MO is an anti-romantic, the notes at the front say. Having seen Bessie make a marriage of comfort rather than passion means I read “The Doctor’s Family” with more eagerness than the average romance, because I was not at all certain that Nettie and Doctor Rider would end up together, or even that it would be a good idea.
Nettie and the doctor are drawn very well. Nettie sticks by her family regardless, but her fierce proud spirit and her insistence that there is no choice means she is not some tiresome good female doing her duty. Her dreadful sister complains about Nettie’s organisational powers, complaining that she manages things without consulting Susan’s wishes; are we to believe that Nettie can be a bit irritating? Or do we disregards Susan’s opinion, as she is a selfish, self-centred parasite? And interestingly, when she is relieved of it quite abruptly, she is distressed at being suddenly unnecessary. The doctor dashes round in his curricle thinking of sweeping Nettie off her feet, and raging when she is given no respect by her relatives but in fact is unheroic in his inability to accept her and her family together. He is better in a medical crisis, taking on the extra duties that a death in the family requires, and whilst this is not explored, it suggests that their marriage could succeed if they split their work according to ability and temperament.
I like the use of details in their homes. I like the description of the cottage, with its ecclesiastical details that in fact make the apartment of the Smiths, the landlord and landlady, like a cell. I like the way in which Doctor Rider starts to see his own bachelor house in a different light when he comes home to find Nettie sitting in his chair, and he reacts too to Fred taking possession of his room (and later, of Nettie’s parlour) and Mrs Smith coming into his parlour. Nettie’s space in the cottage gradually gets taken over too, so while her marriage to the doctor may not be perfect, I wonder if she could have slid from competent manager of her sister’s family to drudge.
I like, too, that the “lower” classes have names and characters, like Mrs Smith, whose speech suggests a lower class socially but who has a nice turn of phrase at times, and Mary, the doctor’s domestic, who might be a little slovenly or might merely be unable to be everywhere at once to attend the doctor’s erratic demands.
And although some situations might seem hard to relate to in this century – like the duty to look after a lazy relative or the demands of a rector’s calling, a slightly closer look will show they are not so different from our times after all. We still wonder, as a society rather than as individuals, whether to help those who won’t help themselves. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who has wondered whether to stay in a job they are not equipped to do well in order not to let down others around them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2011
Oliphant really does do an excellent job of telling quiet, daily human stories that portray men and women dealing with the challenges of well-meaning lives. These two short novels, the second and third in her "Chronicles of Carlingsford" series, printed between 1862 and 1865, though quiet, stayed on my mind as I thought about the universal nature of the conflicts and struggles she portrayed in the lives of villagers a century and a half ago. These are not exciting, romantic or tragic plots, but they are well-portrayed and sympathetic portrayals of good-hearted men and women on a small stage trying their best to rise to challenges that they face, but are far from expert at doing so.
Penelope Fitzgerald's introduction to this Penguin edition points out the parallels between Oliphant's life and the life situation and choices of one of the protagonists, Nettie Underwood. Seeing that connection added to the thoughtfulness of the reading experience.
Penelope Fitzgerald's introduction to this Penguin edition points out the parallels between Oliphant's life and the life situation and choices of one of the protagonists, Nettie Underwood. Seeing that connection added to the thoughtfulness of the reading experience.
July 15, 2015
I am to summarize Chaps 9-12 on Yahoo Group otherlit Aug 2nd.
I am ashamed to say, as an English major in a NE Corridor university, I was never exposed to Mrs. Oliphant! Her writing is witty, empathetic, but not overly sweet and innocent. In fact, she is more like Zola (who was born after her work) than Dickens. "The Doctor's Family" introduces us to some very well-developed characters. Nettie is the strong-willed SIL to Susan and Fred Rider. Fred is a lazy, unmotivated sloth, who gains most of the humerous scenes, while Susan, a hand-wringer is under complete contol of Nettie. Nettie "likes" Dr. Rider, who seems sensible (the only one here!). I type "likes" because she cannot seem to commit herself to love, nor to affection. The complete control of her little family is her goal. Tragic events, however, interfere with the bubble of life, and that's all I can relate. If you like VicLit and are tired of Dickens and Trollope, open one of Oliphant's97 (ninety seven!!) novels.
I am ashamed to say, as an English major in a NE Corridor university, I was never exposed to Mrs. Oliphant! Her writing is witty, empathetic, but not overly sweet and innocent. In fact, she is more like Zola (who was born after her work) than Dickens. "The Doctor's Family" introduces us to some very well-developed characters. Nettie is the strong-willed SIL to Susan and Fred Rider. Fred is a lazy, unmotivated sloth, who gains most of the humerous scenes, while Susan, a hand-wringer is under complete contol of Nettie. Nettie "likes" Dr. Rider, who seems sensible (the only one here!). I type "likes" because she cannot seem to commit herself to love, nor to affection. The complete control of her little family is her goal. Tragic events, however, interfere with the bubble of life, and that's all I can relate. If you like VicLit and are tired of Dickens and Trollope, open one of Oliphant's97 (ninety seven!!) novels.
March 17, 2019
This is a collection of two short novels, I preferred 'The Rector' to 'The Doctor's Family'. What has made me rate this as only OK, is partly the style. It lacked conversations and told me how characters feeling, what their personalities were like and so on rather than letting me observe them. The way the story is related by the narrator is fine, but I couldn't really care about the characters, or consequently what happened to them. It's hard to say what is is exactly that put me off, style, characters, my own mood. I'll try another Oliphant novel (perhaps not straight away) and see if a longer format works better for me.
September 1, 2011
Sort of Trollope without the know-all intrusive author - which sounds as if I don't like Trollope, which I do, so this was OK but just lacking that detachment. The characterisations are excellent, the writing fluent and the ambience gentle. I'm surprised costume drama television hasn't found this author yet.
January 13, 2008
A lot of exposition, which gets difficult given the length of the book and your desire to hear the characters converse. That said, I continue to be astounded by Oliphant's fascinating female characters.
April 8, 2020
Although it was interesting to read something by a somewhat forgotten Victorian female author, I do find self-sacrificing Victorian heroines to be oh so irritating, I just want to give them a good shake. At least Nettie isn't as insufferably wet as most of them.
August 26, 2012
"The Rector" is a short story, "The Doctor's Family" a short novel. Nettie, the heroine, is described as a fairy way too many times. Still, it was charming.
Want to read
July 4, 2021Republished by Virago
November 28, 2022
Carlingford is a town with one good, prosperous street of houses fronted by apple orchards, whose inhabitants shop in nearby establishments and attend the Church of England. It then has an indeterminate, poorer zone of brickworks and new houses. Its shopkeepers and tradespeople, who have their own social pretensions (treated more fully later in the series than this), are mainly Methodist. 'The Rector', the first of these tales, written by Oliphant in dire financial straits after the rejection of other material, concerns a transplanted Fellow of All Souls, Rev. Morley Proctor, who has wrenched himself away from his own earthly paradise, a self-enclosed world of Classical scholarship, so that his mother, in her 80s, can live with him and find a new social circle. Yet the town's multiple relationships, its 'perpetual curate', marriageable young women, kindly spinsters, interfering older people, baffle Proctor--who unlike Frank Wentworth, the curate of St. Roque's, would have enough money to marry, but lacks the familiarity with women and capacity to carry on a campaign of bringing charity to the dying, perplexed and unhappy. The new Rector's unfortunate experiences trying to administer the last rites to a dying woman--he first says he hopes she is not so near death as all that; and is then upstaged by the effective ministrations of Wentworth, a man half his age and with not a quarter of his learning--lead him to give up his position and return to Oxford.
'The Doctor's Family' is longer and titled ironically. Dr Edward Rider, living among Carlingford's un-picturesque brickworks, and with a body of patients who could never afford enough 'guineas a visit' to give him the funds to marry and establish himself in polite society, acts with a prudence that has already preempted one unwise marriage. His situation is now worse for the return from Australia of his morally exhausted, merely encumbering 'slovenly' 'squalid' 'sluggish' elder brother--an extraordinary portrayal of a man once the hope of his family, who supposedly gave up his practice for the younger man, but who has taken to embittered dreaming, excessive smoking and alcoholic dissipation. The story starts when Fred's wife and three children (not before revealed to the doctor) fetch up looking for him, chaperoned by their essential companion, Nettie, a diminutive dynamo whose efficiency and habitual immolation of personal wants and feelings are comparable to those of Dr Rider himself. Will a romance and alliance be possible between the two, psychologically complicated selfless figures, or will Fred's selfishness, and the peevish self-pity of his wife Susan, divert their energies into mending their improvidence and providing for their unruly children?
'The Doctor's Family' is longer and titled ironically. Dr Edward Rider, living among Carlingford's un-picturesque brickworks, and with a body of patients who could never afford enough 'guineas a visit' to give him the funds to marry and establish himself in polite society, acts with a prudence that has already preempted one unwise marriage. His situation is now worse for the return from Australia of his morally exhausted, merely encumbering 'slovenly' 'squalid' 'sluggish' elder brother--an extraordinary portrayal of a man once the hope of his family, who supposedly gave up his practice for the younger man, but who has taken to embittered dreaming, excessive smoking and alcoholic dissipation. The story starts when Fred's wife and three children (not before revealed to the doctor) fetch up looking for him, chaperoned by their essential companion, Nettie, a diminutive dynamo whose efficiency and habitual immolation of personal wants and feelings are comparable to those of Dr Rider himself. Will a romance and alliance be possible between the two, psychologically complicated selfless figures, or will Fred's selfishness, and the peevish self-pity of his wife Susan, divert their energies into mending their improvidence and providing for their unruly children?
June 29, 2022
Mrs. Oliphant is long overdue for re-evaluation. Oliphant is probably the most neglected of the great Victorian novelists, perhaps, unjustly, because her fictional world is so small—the Victorian village and Church, which hold little interest for readers today. But give me her subtle feminist humor over the dour philosophizing of George Elliot any day. In The Rector, she explores the defects of a new curate who is totally unprepared for his job. She examines the tension between being safe and comfortable versus a more purposeful life while gently poking fun at men who are too easy on themselves and too eager to let women pick up their slack.
May 14, 2025
I had already read 'The Rector', but the 'Doctor's Family' was very sweet. The doctor is burdened by his (lazy? depressed? addicted?) brother Fred, only to discover (when they turn upon his doorstep) that Fred has a (lazy and mean) wife and three children, previously living in Australia. Fortunately Fred also has a very resourceful sister-in-law, Nettie, who sees it as her duty to sacrifice herself and her income to the family.
But the doctor and the village as a whole think Nettie has a right to a life of her own. I enjoyed this, although I did get tired of Nettie being described every other paragraph as 'dauntless'.
But the doctor and the village as a whole think Nettie has a right to a life of her own. I enjoyed this, although I did get tired of Nettie being described every other paragraph as 'dauntless'.
February 19, 2025
These are the first two in the Chronicles of Carlingford sequence. The Rector is hardly more than a short story and The Doctor’s Family is a longer novella. Both are about an income to the small town and how they manage(or not) to fit into a very closed society.
I expected something slightly more satirical, pointing up the foibles of Victorian society as some Trollope does. There isn’t that same lightness of touch though there is some humour here. I hope that there is more of this in the longer full novels that follow.
I expected something slightly more satirical, pointing up the foibles of Victorian society as some Trollope does. There isn’t that same lightness of touch though there is some humour here. I hope that there is more of this in the longer full novels that follow.
January 20, 2025
Quite entertaining and a great insight into social history of the nineteenth century. But also too wordy. I really dislike knowing that writers are wasting my time with unnecessary, irrelevant detail. The characters are also mostly unappealing.
February 27, 2025
The Rector wasn’t great. It was only the first four chapters. The remainder of the book was The Doctor. This story was much more interesting and in depth.
The narrator has a raspy voice but was good.
The narrator has a raspy voice but was good.
March 12, 2022
Solid enough Vic-Lit that I'll move on to the rest of the series. Rather humorless compared to Trollope, but very well done nonetheless.
November 11, 2023
3* for The Rector and 5* for The Doctor’s Family
October 28, 2024
The Rector: 3/5 ⭐️
The Doctor’s Family: 4/5 ⭐️
The Doctor’s Family: 4/5 ⭐️
September 5, 2025
it didn't capture me. I read the first story and not the second and while the writing is excellent it failed to hold my interest.
November 24, 2024
“’Oh, Mr Proctor,’ cried Lucy, with a sudden access of fun, ‘you don’t mean to say that you dislike ladies’ society, I hope?’
The Rector gave an uneasy half-frightened glance at her. The creature was dangerous...”
I was expecting something along the lines of Mrs Gaskell’s Cranford – a mild-mannered satire of middle-class gentlewomen in an English country town – but Mrs Oliphant’s Carlingford is distinctly more acerbic, less conventional, and rather better written.
The Rector is no more than a short story, but a familiar, lightly amusing introduction – new rector, much fluttering, is he married or single, high or low church? – turns into a more interesting character study with a resolution that is neither romantic nor triumphant, but realistic and rather sad.
The Doctor’s Family does have a more conventional conclusion, achieved by some improbable plot twists (though no worse than Dickens). But en route it provides quite complex portraits of family ties and obligations and an equally complex heroine who seems to be the author’s alter ego. Like the young but determined Nettie, Margaret Oliphant had to support a family not her own. She did so by writing – but not, at least in these two works, by compromising on the quality of that writing.
The Rector gave an uneasy half-frightened glance at her. The creature was dangerous...”
I was expecting something along the lines of Mrs Gaskell’s Cranford – a mild-mannered satire of middle-class gentlewomen in an English country town – but Mrs Oliphant’s Carlingford is distinctly more acerbic, less conventional, and rather better written.
The Rector is no more than a short story, but a familiar, lightly amusing introduction – new rector, much fluttering, is he married or single, high or low church? – turns into a more interesting character study with a resolution that is neither romantic nor triumphant, but realistic and rather sad.
The Doctor’s Family does have a more conventional conclusion, achieved by some improbable plot twists (though no worse than Dickens). But en route it provides quite complex portraits of family ties and obligations and an equally complex heroine who seems to be the author’s alter ego. Like the young but determined Nettie, Margaret Oliphant had to support a family not her own. She did so by writing – but not, at least in these two works, by compromising on the quality of that writing.
April 24, 2017
We are reading "unknown female authors of the nineteenth century" in our book circle. I found an exhibition at Duke University: "I take up my pen" which gave me some help and finally I settled on Mrs. Oliphant as her Chronicles of Carlingford reminded my - and readers of her time, I would guess - of Trollope's Barset novels.
Margaret Oliphant wrote to support her family and she wrote copiously and quite well. These novels were published in 1863 and give an interesting focus on small town life at that time.
I found a debased copy of The Rektor at Duke's Internet archive: "THE EECTOR Digitilized by tine internet Arcliive in 2010 witli funding from Dul-e University Libraries" sic. Fortunately this was short so I looked no further for a type-read copy.
The story opens with everyone in the town of Carlingford wondering how will the new rector be? High Church? Low Church? And is he married? This of course reminded me of the people in Barsetshire wondering "who will be the new bishop?" Carlingford is a growing town with a modern part still being built which is not fashionable, and an older part enclosed in high garden walls which is.
The Rector turns out to be a perpetual scholar who has left the cloisters of Oxford only to please his mother. He does not much like his parishioners - or any people - and would much rather read. Women, especially terrify him. The town - particularly the young ladies, and the not so young unmarried ladies - do what they can to draw him in but in the end he retreats to Oxford. In what amounts to a post script he is last viewed in "a remote parsonage in in which an elderly embarrassed Eector, with a mild wife... toils painfully after his duty, more and more giving his heart to it..."
The Doctor's Family is a much more sprawling novel. Peripheral characters from The Rector are also peripheral here, while the peripheral young Dr. Rider of The Rector is here a central character. As also are his family, his lazy, slovenly elder brother, Fred, and his brother's family.
There is, unfortunately, absolutely nothing about the doctor's work, his treatment, or his patients. The novel does, however, provide information on such topics as smoking - too much is not good for you nor attractive, male facial hair - not at all popular except among colonials and bohemians, and naturally fashion and class.
What I enjoyed most was the character of little Nettie, the sister of Dr. Rider's brothers wife. As indolent as her sister, Susan, is - and Fred, so energetic is she. And as outspoken and uncowed:
"Nettie looked at him with a certain careless scorn of the inferior creature- 'Ah, yes, I daresay; but then you are only a man'." Hardly the attitude of a shrinking violet. The reader realizes early on that these two are meant for one another but Nettie see it as her duty to care for lazy Susan and her lazy husband Fred and their wild children. She has a small fortune which provides enough for them to live on if Nettie is careful and busy. It is in fact Nettie who has dragged her sister with her children to England from far Australia in search of Fred, the doctor's brother.
Dr. Rider is terrified to find his brother has a family, which news the brother found too exhausting to share. But the doctor is fascinated by Nettie and exasperated with her view of duty to her sister's family. They quarrel: "As usual, it was the woman who had to face the light and observation, and to veil her trouble. The man rushed back into the darkness..."
The plot is quite transparent. The reader realizes early on that Fred has to die and he does so, falling into a canal and drowning - probably drunk. There now remains only indolent sister Susan but fortunately an old acquaintance arrives from Australia and whisks her off.
Other characters lurk in the background, the sisters Wentworth, the perpetual curate of St. Roques, the "fashionable" Dr. Marjoribanks and his daughter. Whether their stories are told in later chronicles ...
Margaret Oliphant wrote to support her family and she wrote copiously and quite well. These novels were published in 1863 and give an interesting focus on small town life at that time.
I found a debased copy of The Rektor at Duke's Internet archive: "THE EECTOR Digitilized by tine internet Arcliive in 2010 witli funding from Dul-e University Libraries" sic. Fortunately this was short so I looked no further for a type-read copy.
The story opens with everyone in the town of Carlingford wondering how will the new rector be? High Church? Low Church? And is he married? This of course reminded me of the people in Barsetshire wondering "who will be the new bishop?" Carlingford is a growing town with a modern part still being built which is not fashionable, and an older part enclosed in high garden walls which is.
The Rector turns out to be a perpetual scholar who has left the cloisters of Oxford only to please his mother. He does not much like his parishioners - or any people - and would much rather read. Women, especially terrify him. The town - particularly the young ladies, and the not so young unmarried ladies - do what they can to draw him in but in the end he retreats to Oxford. In what amounts to a post script he is last viewed in "a remote parsonage in in which an elderly embarrassed Eector, with a mild wife... toils painfully after his duty, more and more giving his heart to it..."
The Doctor's Family is a much more sprawling novel. Peripheral characters from The Rector are also peripheral here, while the peripheral young Dr. Rider of The Rector is here a central character. As also are his family, his lazy, slovenly elder brother, Fred, and his brother's family.
There is, unfortunately, absolutely nothing about the doctor's work, his treatment, or his patients. The novel does, however, provide information on such topics as smoking - too much is not good for you nor attractive, male facial hair - not at all popular except among colonials and bohemians, and naturally fashion and class.
What I enjoyed most was the character of little Nettie, the sister of Dr. Rider's brothers wife. As indolent as her sister, Susan, is - and Fred, so energetic is she. And as outspoken and uncowed:
"Nettie looked at him with a certain careless scorn of the inferior creature- 'Ah, yes, I daresay; but then you are only a man'." Hardly the attitude of a shrinking violet. The reader realizes early on that these two are meant for one another but Nettie see it as her duty to care for lazy Susan and her lazy husband Fred and their wild children. She has a small fortune which provides enough for them to live on if Nettie is careful and busy. It is in fact Nettie who has dragged her sister with her children to England from far Australia in search of Fred, the doctor's brother.
Dr. Rider is terrified to find his brother has a family, which news the brother found too exhausting to share. But the doctor is fascinated by Nettie and exasperated with her view of duty to her sister's family. They quarrel: "As usual, it was the woman who had to face the light and observation, and to veil her trouble. The man rushed back into the darkness..."
The plot is quite transparent. The reader realizes early on that Fred has to die and he does so, falling into a canal and drowning - probably drunk. There now remains only indolent sister Susan but fortunately an old acquaintance arrives from Australia and whisks her off.
Other characters lurk in the background, the sisters Wentworth, the perpetual curate of St. Roques, the "fashionable" Dr. Marjoribanks and his daughter. Whether their stories are told in later chronicles ...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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