Unmarried women


In Margaret Oliphant's works an unmarried woman is often a strong, independent person who has an important part to play in the lives of those about her. Despite her unmarried state, she often has dependants. Mrs Oliphant disliked the terms "spinster" and "old maid", which carry assumptions of an uninteresting person leading a narrow life, of little importance to others. She especially disliked these terms applied to a young woman:

In Mary's Brother:  "Mary was thirty, an age when a woman is in her finest and noblest bloom . . . . "

And in Mademoiselle:  "She was a woman in the full flower and prime of life - that is, approaching thirty-five:  a period, however, at which few people will acknowledge a woman's prime to be."

This selection includes unmarried women who are the central character, or important to the story line.


Christian Melville
NovelWritten 1844-5
Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside
Novel1849
Merkland, a Story of Scottish Life   [Self-Sacrifice]
Novel1850
Annie Orme
Short Fiction1852
Harry Muir, a Story of Scottish Life
Novel1853
Lilliesleaf
Novel1855
The Athelings, or The Three Gifts
(Anastasia Rivers)Novel1856
Orphans, a Chapter in Life
Novel1857
The Last of the Mortimers, a Story in Two Voices
Novel1861
Miss Marjoribanks
Novel1865
May
Novel1873
Whiteladies
Novel1875
Carità
Novel1876
Young Musgrave
Novel1877
Diana Trelawny, the History of a Great Mistake
NovelWritten 1877
An Elderly Romance
Short Fiction1879
Harry Joscelyn
 Novel1881
The Ladies Lindores
(Barbara Erskine)Novel1882
The Lady's Walk
Novel1882
It Was a Lover and His Lass
Novel1883
Hester, a Story of Contemporary Life
Novel1883
Kirsteen
Novel1889
Mademoiselle
Short Fiction1889
A Chance Encounter
Short Fiction1891
The Sorceress
Novel1892
Mary's Brother
Short Fiction1892
Who Was Lost and Is Found
Novel1894
Old Mr Tredgold, a Story of Two Sisters
Novel1895

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