The Curate in Charge

A standalone, this one takes us to the country parish of Brentburn which is looked after by the curate Mr St John who does his duty devotedly but does nothing to change (“improve”) his own situation for over 20 years, the rector having moved to Italy for health reasons. In this period, he has been t......more

It was a very neat little book, only 205 pages. The edition was poorly edited and designed—lots of punctuation typos—but it was cheap and small, easy to have on hand. Oliphant is as I have never seen her, witty and sharp, and her characters are all fallible and human, from Mab who calls herself “the......more

I liked this little old-fashioned story. A country curate is ambling through life, doing a wonderful job at his calling, but he lacks any ambition. This is not important to him, but we soon see how important it is to those who are depending on him. He marries twice, and is left with two teen daughte......more

I could easily argue that this is one of the most important feminist novels of the 19th cent. In this novel Mrs. Oliphant attacks women's limited roles in society, and advocates for women's right to not be a mother (or particularly like children), and to take control of their lives. In a truly aston......more