Laurence Oliphant's works are rarely read, although they are quite unlike other Victorian novels. His life, fascinating in its complexity and with a tragic gap between his promise and his achievements, has recently been the object of a sympathetic study, and he would seem to be worth investigating in order to show some of the more unusual and hidden sides of the Victorian character.

Oliphant was born in Capetown, South Africa, in 1829. His father and mother were both members of old Scottish families and both were fervent evangelicals in religion. In 1839 his father wa s made chief justice of Ceylon and knighted. Oliphant traveled widely in his youth, but his education was much interrupted. He did not go to a university but accompanied his parents on a prolonged tour of Europe, witnessing some of the revolutions of 1848. He joined the colonial bar in Ceylon and visited Nepal. He...