Miss Marjoribanks

Nov 30, 2025 3:55 AM

Author:Margaret Oliphant,Elisabeth Jay,Elisabeth Jay

Miss Marjoribanks

Returning home to tend her widowed father Dr Marjoribanks, Lucilla soon launches herself into Carlingford society, aiming to raise the tone with her select Thursday evening parties. Optimistic, resourceful and blithely unimpeded by self-doubt, Lucilla is a superior being in every way, not least in relation to men. 'A tour de force...full of wit, surprises and intrigue...We can imagine Jane Austen reading MISS MARJORIBANKS with enjoyment and approval in the Elysian Fields' - Q. D. Leavis. Leavisdeclared Oliphant's heroine Lucilla to be the missing link in Victorian literature between Jane Austen's Emma and George Eliot's Dorothea Brook and 'more entertaining, more impressive and more likeable than either'.

Reviews

One of our foremost writers of naval fiction.

—— Sunday Times

As always with Eco, there is much to admire

—— Sunday Times

A beautiful evocation of a difficult period of Italian history, full of the flair and erudition for which we love Eco

—— Metro

Genuinely clever...the writing, the quotes and the pictures often tickle the brain

—— Irish Independent

Witty, playful, and incorrigibly erudite, Eco clearly had fun writing this book. There is much to enjoy

—— Daily Mail

Another great exhilaration from Eco. Eye-poppingly fascinating

—— Guardian

Perhaps the most intellectual novelist in Europe today. A highly idiosyncratic by engrossing novel

—— Herald

Profound and moving. A wonderful entertainer

—— Scotsman

Engaging

—— Sunday Times

The opening is delightful, the sort of stuff that has readers rubbing their hands in anticipation...it is good to see Eco recapture something of his former glories, bouncing ideas of his readers with characteristic zest

—— Sunday Telegraph

Stimulating

—— Big Issue

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