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'The dead rise out of their graves!' These words, though one has heard them before, took possession of my imagination. I saw the rude fellow go along the street as I went on, tossing the coin in his hand. One time it fell to the ground and rang upon the pavement, and he laughed more loudly as he picked it up. He was walking towards the sunset, and I too, at a distance after. The sky was full of rose-tinted clouds floating across the blue, floating...
2) Sir Tom
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Lucy Trevor, now Lady Randolph, and her husband Sir Tom are very happy together - made even more so by the birth of their little boy. When Lucy's younger brother Jock comes for a long visit, he reminds her of their father's requirements that she give away half her fortune - an idea that is not appreciated by Sir Tom: "A man may have the most liberal principles about women, and yet feel a most natural indignation when his own wife shows signs of desiring...
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She was very old, and therefore it was very hard for her to make up her mind to die. I am aware that this is not at all the general view, but that it is believed, as old age must be near death, that it prepares the soul for that inevitable event. It is not so, however, in many cases. In youth we are still so near the unseen out of which we came, that death is rather pathetic than tragic,-a thing that touches all hearts, but to which, in many cases,...
4) Hester
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Hester (1883) is a dramatic story of female power and family tensions within Victorian society. Using her own money, Catherine Vernon manages to save the family bank from collapse after her cousin John absconds with some of its money. As the matriarch of Redborough, Catherine is used to commanding authority, but this is challenged with the arrival of John's strong and capable teenage daughter, Hester. Ignorant of her father's conduct, Hester takes...
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Phoebe, Junior' is the last novel in Oliphant's 'Chronicles of Carlingford' originally published in 1876. Phoebe Beecham's father is the Dissenting minister of a large, wealthy London chapel. (Her mother, born Phoebe Tozer of Carlingford, was a character in an earlier Carlingford novel Salem Chapel.) Phoebe "Junior" is well educated, and has been raised to have the manners of a lady. When she goes on a long visit to her shop-keeper grandparents in...
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The Open Door, and The Portrait: Stories of the Seen and the Unseen was published in 1881. Both stories will captivate the reader with their mysterious occurrences.
In The Open Door a sense of suspense intensifies as the horrifying environment unfolds and events heighten the imagination of the reader. An excerpt reads, "It was close to us, the vacant door-way in it going out straight into the blackness outside. The light showed the bit of wall, the...
7) Ombra
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Kate Courtney, fifteen, is an heiress with a house in the country - and a rather inflated idea of what her position entails. But she has no one who cares anything about her. She believes she has found happiness when she goes to live with her aunt Mrs. Anderson and her cousin Ombra (whose name means Shadow) in a cottage on the Isle of Wight. But Ombra does not feel the same fondness - she had been the center of attention in her little world before...
8) Madonna Mary
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Mary loves her husband Major Ochterlony, and their marriage is happy - except when the fidgety Major periodically becomes obsessed with some unwelcome idea which he insists on seeing through, no matter how foolish or hurtful to Mary. They are in India, far from home, when he has his worst idea yet - that they must remarry, as he fears that their earlier "Scotch marriage" could be difficult to prove. This action brings gossip and shame on Mary, and...
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This early novel tells the story of Hester Southcote, a girl who has been raised by a bitter father to require "justice" of others, rather than sympathy or pity or even love. Her father is squire of Cottiswoode in Cambridgeshire; but their way of life is overturned when an unknown, but rightful, heir comes forward. Hester takes on her father's bitterness as they start a new life in Cambridge. Later she marries and believes she has found happiness;...
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The three stories in the Little Pilgrim series all take place in the Afterlife. The series is based on the Christian religion, but has a universal appeal in its view of heaven and the lower worlds of the Afterlife. The first story was inspired by the death of Margaret Oliphant's close friend and neighbour Eleanor Clifford, known to Mrs. Oliphant's children as Aunt Nelly. In several stories the little Pilgrim (Nelly) sees or encounters people she knew...
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Colonel and Mrs. Kingsward have been travelling in Germany with their three eldest children, for the health of Mrs. Kingsward. Just after the Colonel returns to London, their daughter Bee becomes engaged to Aubrey Leigh, a young man of independent means. But a vindictive "lady" writes to Colonel Kingsward, enclosing a note on which she has forged a date, claiming Aubrey is under a moral obligation to marry her. Thus Colonel Kingsward forbids Bee's...
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This early novel centres on the Atheling family, especially on the three young people Agnes, Marion, and Charlie. Each has a special gift: Agnes has genius as a writer, Marion has beauty, and Charlie will find his gift in the course of the story. The novel is told mostly from Agnes' point of view. She has written a novel and found a publisher; and on the heels of her book's modest success, she and Marion are invited into society, which leads to some...
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When Mrs. Blencarrow's husband died a few years ago, his will left the management of the estate and the trusteeship of the children in her hands, adding as well her brothers' names as trustees, though this was more for form's sake than anything else. And since then (her eldest son still not of age), she has managed everything well with only a young man, Mr. Brown the steward, to assist - a young man who belongs to a lower class and stays well in the...
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For reasons never explained to him, Edgar Arden was raised and educated on the Continent, away from his father and sister Clare. Now after the death of his father Edgar returns as squire of Arden Hall. The only shadows in his path are the enmity of the next heir, his cousin Arthur Arden, and vague rumours that Edgar is not the legitimate heir. But meanwhile he settles into his new role, and finds himself attracted to a neighbourhood family of lively...
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When the aged Curate in Charge of Brentburn parish church loses his position of 20 years, he is too overwhelmed to act for himself - it will be up to his two daughters to determine how to support the family of five (which includes two little boys from a second marriage). The eldest sister Cecily is the practical one, who must determine how to plan and work for the family's future, even if it means being reduced to a lower social status. Cecily feels...
17) Madam A Novel
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Old Mr Trevanion, the squire of Highcourt, is a combative man who enjoys tyrannizing over his wife Grace. Ill with heart disease, as his health deteriorates his behaviour does too; and even in front of others he makes vague threats of exposing some shameful secret from Grace's past. Grace has four children by Mr Trevanion, and an older stepdaughter Rosalind with whom she is very close.
Soon people become aware that Grace is leaving the house each...
18) The Two Marys
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15-year-old Mary Peveril and her widowed clergyman father seem to be everything to each other - until he rather suddenly decides to marry a young woman in her twenties. Mary is all at once pushed into the shade, and jealously watches the other Mary take her place in her father's heart. Even Mary's first experience in love is complicated by the nearness of the other Mary. As originally serialised in four parts, the first two parts deal with the relationship...
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The Reverend Mr. Buchanan holds an important position in the university town of St Rule's, but his means are small. As he and his wife struggle to do the required entertaining, and to make many necessary expenditures for his family, he turns to his rich old friend Mr. Anderson, who lends him three hundred pounds. When Mr. Anderson dies suddenly, Mr. Buchanan knows that he should notify the executor of the estate about this loan; but he postpones this...