Early novels of faith

In several of Margaret Oliphant's novels, faith is so emphasized as to be part of the story line. This is found especially in her early works, in which she expresses an evangelical point of view inspired by her Scottish Presbyterian roots. She later viewed some of these novels as naive and polemical. However the issues she explores are far removed from conventional concerns with piety and good works: she portrays faith as something profound, arising from deep within the person.

In the last of these novels, The Minister's Wife, Oliphant examines evangelical faith from a greater distance, especially with regard to the extreme religious movement described in the story. As the years passed, Margaret Oliphant's faith became a more mystical experience, reflected later in many of her Stories of the Seen and Unseen.

Christian Melville		Novel	Written 1844-5
Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside		Novel	1849
Merkland, a Story of Scottish Life [Self-Sacrifice]		Novel	1850
Caleb Field, a Tale of the Puritans		Novel	1851
John Drayton		Novel	1851
The Melvilles		Novel	1852
Magdalen Hepburn		Novel	1854
Lilliesleaf		Novel	1855
The Athelings, or The Three Gifts	(Rev.Lionel Rivers, 3rd vol)	Novel	1856
Agnes Hopetoun's Schools and Holidays		Novel	1858
A Son of the Soil		Novel	1863
The Minister's Wife		Novel	1869

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Early novels of faith

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