This novel, one of Oliphant’s best-known, was first published in 1865 and is a continuation of the Chronicles of Carlingford series. Comic in tone, it tells of Lucilla Marjoribanks’ attempts to rise in Carlingford society and is a satire on the social mores of English country life. In particular, it deals with the important theme of the position of women in such a society. During the mid-Victorian period, a woman had a rigidly defined role as a wife and mother, with almost no prospect of a career beyond this narrow domestic sphere. As such, it was vitally important that women find a husband that might support them, rather than ending up a spinster dependent perpetually on the charity of relatives. In this novel, Oliphant uses Lucilla’s progress to draw comical attention to the lengths to which women were driven in order to find the right husband. Yet Lucilla is also a courageous and appealing heroine, determined to reconcile the demands made of women in Victorian society with her yearning for a life beyond the homestead.
Incidentally, the correct pronunciation of ‘Marjoribanks’ is ‘Marchbanks’.