The Executor

Margaret Oliphant Wilson OliphantProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 73K words
Chapters: 8

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Executor by Mrs. OliphantAuthor: Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret), 1828-1897,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 15, 2019

Editor's review

The Executor is by Margaret Oliphant, a prolific nineteenth-century British novelist whose work often depicts family relationships, social customs, and character psychology with delicate strokes. The book falls under English language and literature, and its length suits short-to-medium reading; through the role of the executor—entailing property, responsibility, and kinship—it shows characters weighing morality against interest. For readers who want a sense of late Victorian fiction without tackling a very long major novel, this is a relatively light entry point. The materials provide no plot details; while reading, pay attention to dialogue and narrative pacing, and observe how the author handles family-ethics themes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy nineteenth-century British fiction and want to broaden their reading of classic authors
Readers interested in stories about family ethics and inheritance
Readers who want to understand Victorian social life through short-to-medium fiction
English literature students or researchers using it for selected readings

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer modern fast-paced, high-conflict plots
Readers who read no English originals and have no translation available
Readers expecting thriller or mystery elements

Reading tips

First learn about Oliphant's era and writing style, then begin the text
While reading, note the conflicts of responsibility and shifts in relationships brought by the executor role
Compare with other Victorian family-themed novels to contrast narrative techniques
After finishing, revisit key dialogue passages to sort out characters' motives and moral positions

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What kind of writer is Oliphant?

Margaret Oliphant (1828–1897) was a prolific nineteenth-century British novelist whose works mostly depict family life, social customs, and character psychology, often handling ethical and emotional themes with delicate technique. This book is one of her works and offers a way to know her narrative style.

Is this book suitable for English learners?

As a nineteenth-century English novel, its vocabulary and sentence patterns bear the marks of the era; it suits learners with some English reading foundation who are willing to engage with classic texts. Beginners may start with simplified versions or reference materials before trying the original.

What is interesting about the executor theme?

This role often involves property distribution, family duties, and personal entanglements, readily bringing out characters' choices between interest and conscience. Readers can watch how the author advances conflict through everyday dialogue and detail rather than relying on dramatic plot.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant Author · British (Scottish) · 1828–1897

Mrs. Oliphant (Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant, 1828–1897) was a prolific Scottish novelist, historical writer and biographer of the Victorian era. Born in Wallyford, she gained fame in 1849 with Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland. In 1852 she married her cousin Frank Oliphant; widowed in 1859, she supported her children by her pen and published more than a hundred works in her lifetime. The library holds 90 of her works, including the Carlingford Chronicles, Salem Chapel, Miss Marjoribanks, supernatural tales, Hester, Kirsteen and the autobiography The Days of My Life. She is known for her delicate, humorous portrayals of small-town life and for her historical and biographical writing, and stands as a representative professional woman writer of the Victorian period.