The sleepy town of Carlingford includes two Anglican churches and one dissenting chapel. They draw their congregations from very different strata of society, even in as small a town as theirs. Arthur Vincent has just been called as pastor to his first charge, Salem Chapel. He’s a young man of ability, but he’s also prideful and ambitious. As his ministry settles, he finds himself both repulsed by his crude and claustrophobic flock, and attracted by the brighter members of the town’s society. Vincent’s social entanglements complicate his ministry in predictable ways. What could not be predicted, however, are the crises into which his wider family is plunged as their lives intertwine with those of strangers. This second Chronicle of Carlingford brings readers into a realm of society which is seldom glimpsed in Victorian fiction: the lives of shopkeepers, dissenting thought and culture, the distinctive piety and “tea meetings” of the Chapel—all of which finds its closest parallels in the later fiction of Mark Rutherford. While Salem Chapel may not yet be the artistic high point of the series, still, as one critic puts it, with it “Mrs. Oliphant gave the surest sign of genius.” This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

One of the entries in Margaret Oliphant's series The Carlingford Chronicles, Salem Chapel offers modern-day readers a peek into the Victorian era, replete with its preoccupation with socioeconomic status and strict codes of behavior. In this volume of the series, an unsavory character (whose identity might surprise you) concocts a plot to besmirch the reputation of an upstanding young lady.

"Salem Chapel" is a historical novel by Mrs. Oliphant published in 1863. Extract: "With these feelings the young pastor pursued his way to see the poor woman who, according to Mrs. Brown's account, was so anxious to see the minister. He found this person, whose desire was at present shared by most of the female members of Salem without the intervention of the Devonshire Dairy, in a mean little house in the close lane dignified by the name of Back Grove Street. She was a thin, dark, vivacious-looking woman, with a face from which some forty years of energetic living had withdrawn all the colour and fulness which might once have rendered it agreeable, but which was, nevertheless, a remarkable face, not to be lightly passed over. Extreme thinness of outline and sharpness of line made the contrast between this educated countenance and the faces which had lately surrounded the young minister still more remarkable."

"Salem Chapel" is a historical novel by Mrs. Oliphant published in 1863. This carefully crafted e-artnow ebook is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents._x000D_ Extract:_x000D_ "With these feelings the young pastor pursued his way to see the poor woman who, according to Mrs. Brown's account, was so anxious to see the minister. He found this person, whose desire was at present shared by most of the female members of Salem without the intervention of the Devonshire Dairy, in a mean little house in the close lane dignified by the name of Back Grove Street. She was a thin, dark, vivacious-looking woman, with a face from which some forty years of energetic living had withdrawn all the colour and fulness which might once have rendered it agreeable, but which was, nevertheless, a remarkable face, not to be lightly passed over. Extreme thinness of outline and sharpness of line made the contrast between this educated countenance and the faces which had lately surrounded the young minister still more remarkable."

Salem Chapel is the fourth of seven works set in the delightful country town of Carlingford. Originally published in 1862. Young Arthur Vincent is a Dissenting minister beginning his ministry at Salem Chapel in Carlingford. He is intellectual and idealistic - not prepared for a middle class congregation whose social level is that of shopkeepers and tradespeople. He starts out fairly well but goes off track as he becomes enamoured of the beautiful Lady Western, and also involved in the affairs of a mysterious poor gentlewoman. Finally a crisis involving a kidnapping and his sister's disappearance takes him to the breaking point. Margaret Oliphant was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. During her career she wrote more than 120 works, including novels travelogues, histories and volumes of literary criticism. Two of her better-known fictional works are Miss Marjoribanks (1866) and Phoebe Junior (1876). Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, with a new introductory biography.