Margaret Oliphant, Salem Chapel

Anne Reus (Technische Universität Dresden)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1863

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Margaret Oliphant’s

Salem Chapel

(1863) narrates events set in motion by the arrival of a new Dissenting minister in the provincial town of Carlingford. It is the second novel in her

Chronicles of Carlingford

series which in its heyday was compared to Anthony Trollope’s

Barchester Towers

. Like the first novel in the series,

The Rector

(1862), and those that followed it,

The Perpetual Curate

(1864) and

Phoebe Junior

(1876),

Salem Chapel

examines how religious institutions and their representatives interact with society and respond to its challenges. It is also heavily influenced by sensation fiction’s sudden rise to popularity and borrows from its arsenal of tropes by incorporating bigamy, murder, and kidnapping into an otherwise comic realist narrative. Oliphant herself considered

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2103 words

Citation: Reus, Anne. "Salem Chapel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 September 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38933, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Margaret Oliphant, Salem Chapel

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