Mrs. Oliphant’s Wives & Widows

Over the course of 47 years, Victorian writer Margaret Oliphant produced 120 novels, biographies, and histories, as well as hundreds of essays and book reviews. "She was of an intellect so alert," wrote J. M. Barrie, "that one wondered if she ever fell asleep." Widowed young, she was the sole support of her children and her nieces, whom her brother had abandoned: a powerful impetus for her prodigious output.

The two novels included here reflect the difficulties that Victorian wives had when their lives took unexpected turns. Eleanor Lycett-Landon ("Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamund") has the care of a large house in Liverpool and six children to occupy her. Her husband, Robert, is a partner in a thriving business that calls him from home to sort out the London office. When these absences become longer and she fears her husband is keeping a mysterious illness from her, she rushes to the big city in search of him. What she discovers will have repercussions for her and the entire family.

Joan Blencarrow ("The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow") is a much-admired, well-to-do widow with a secret. When a gossiping neighbor stumbles upon incriminating information, she stands to lose everything she holds dear, including, because of the stringent laws of the time, the custody of her five precious children. Intriguingly, Mrs. Oliphant is said to have based this story on the much-discussed relationship between Queen Victoria and her personal attendant, John Brown.