Margaret Oliphant - A House in Bloomsbury: 'What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain?''

The life of Margaret Oliphant Wilson was marked by both literary achievement and profound personal tragedy. After publishing her first novel in 1849, she faced the loss of three children and the death of her husband due to tuberculosis, which forced her to become the sole provider for her family through writing. Despite her prolific output and growing reputation, she continued to endure heartache with the deaths of her remaining children. Her later years were overshadowed by grief and declining health, culminating in her death in 1897.