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I have recklessly splashed out 28p on a copy of Mrs Oliphant’s Salem Chapel on Amazon. I really don’t need any more books, but that’s not the point. My interest was piqued by Kirsty’s review on Other Stories and I’m now looking forward to discovering whether my thoughts concur with hers.
I’ve never considered Mrs O to be a particularly good novelist, but I’m extremely protective of her after having read her Autobiography and also Elisabeth Jay’s excellent biography. Like many female Victorian authors, she maintained a prodigious literary output in order to support her family. There was scant opportunity for her to consider the artistic merits of her work, as she had to earn enough to provide for her own children and also her nieces. Her extraordinary drive is finally halted when the last of her children dies and she describes herself as “a mother childless”, declaring that she can write no more.
I’m going to try very hard to like this novel.
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