Katie Stewart — Margaret Oliphant / Margaret Wilson Oliphant

Katie Stewart is a charming tale of a tenacious heroine - the kind of woman most championed by Oliphant - who throughout her life in her family home of Kellie Mill and her adopted home of Kellie Castle, Fife, finds herself much loved. As Katie matures and advances beyond girlish romantic constructs, she finds out what it is to 'put her hand to a woman's weird' and 'keep up her heart' when serious misfortune demands much from her. Inscribed into the story of her sprightly and likeable heroine is an account of the passions connected to the 1745 Jacobite cause - a cause not supported either by the novel's eponymous heroine or indeed by Oliphant herself. Set in the coastal environment of Anstruther and Pittenweem, Katie Stewart also illustrates the cottage and fishing industries of the period and the dangers which beset them. First serialised by the House of Blackwood in 1852, Katie Stewart marked the beginning of Margaret Oliphant's long relationship with this prestigious Scottish publishing firm. Having been left for decades out of print, it is appropriate that this new edition is the opening entry of a new series dedicated to Scottish writing and published by a Scottish initiative. Anne McManus Scriven is the editor of the 'Nineteenth Century Scottish Women's Fiction' series. Holding a Ph.D (Strathclyde, 2005), which focused on the writing of Margaret Oliphant and contemporaneous works, Anne has taught undergraduate courses on Scottish Literature at the universities of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Edinburgh. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Scottish Cultural Studies at the University of Strathclyde.