Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/302

 290 Dictionary of English Literature

versatile author, publishing books of travel, novels, and works o mysticism. The most important are as follows : The Russia Shores of the Black Sea (1853), Minnesota and the Far West (1855 The Transcaucasian Campaign (1856), Patriots and Filibusters (ac ventures in Southern States) (1860), Narrative of a Mission to Chin and Japan (1857-59), The Land of Gilead (1880), Piccadilly (1870 and Altiora Peto (1883) (novels), and Scientific Religion.

OLIPHANT, MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT (WILSON) (1828

1897). Novelist and miscellaneous writer, was b. near Musselburgl Her literary output began when she was little more than a girl, an was continued almost up to the end of her life. Her first novel, Mr; Margaret Maitland, appeared in 1849, and its humour, pathos, an insight into character gave the author an immediate position i literature. It was followed by an endless succession, of which th best were the series of The Chronicles of Carlingford (1861-65), i* eluding Salem Chapel, The Perpetual Curate, and Miss Marj'or: banks, all of which, as well as much of her other work, appeared i Blackwood's Magazine, with which she had a lifelong connectioi Others of some note were The Primrose Path, Madonna Mary (1866 The Wizard's Son, and A Beleaguered City. She did not, howeve; confine herself to fiction, but wrote many books of history and bic graphy, including Sketches of the Reign of George II. (1869), Tl Makers of Florence (1876), Literary History of England 1790-182; Royal Edinburgh (1890), and Lives of St. Francis of Assisi, Edwar Irving, and Principal Tulloch. Her generosity in supporting an educating the family of a brother as well as her own two sons rendere necessary a rate of production which was fatal to the permanence c her work. She was negligent as to style, and often wrote on sut jects to which her intellectual equipment and knowledge did nc enable her to do proper justice. She had, however, considerabl power of painting character, and a vein of humour, and showed ut tiring industry in getting up her subjects.

OPIE, MRS. AMELIA (ALDERSON) (1769-1853). Novelist

dau. of a medical man, was b. at Norwich. In 1798 she m. Jok Opie, the painter. Her first acknowledged work was Father an Daughter (1801), which had a favourable reception, and was followe< by Adeline Mowbray (1804), Temper (1812), Tales from Real L/ (1813), and others, all having the same aim of developing th virtuous affections, the same merit of natural and vivid painting c character and passions, and the same fault of a too great prepondex ance of the pathetic. They were soon superseded by the mor powerful genius of Scott and Miss Edgeworth. In 1825 she becam a Quaker. After this she wrote Illustrations of Lying (1825), an Detraction Displayed (1828). Her later years, which were singularl; cheerful, were largely devoted to philanthropic interests.

ORDERICUS VITALIS (1075-1143?). Chronicler, b. nea

Shrewsbury, was in childhood put into the monastery of St. Evroull in Normandy, where the rest of his life was passed. He is th author of a chronicle, Ecclesiastical History of England and Not mandy (c. 1142) in 13 books. Those from the seventh to the thir teenth are invaluable as giving a trustworthy, though not ver