The Perpetual Curate

Frank Wentworth serves as the perpetual curate of St Roque’s, a hardworking young clergyman whose High Church devotion and quiet ambition set him at odds with the powers around him in Carlingford. Margaret Oliphant surrounds him with obstacles: an aunt whose money he needs but whose approval he cannot win, a bishop suspicious of his ritualism, a rival for his pulpit, and a family scandal that threatens his good name just as he hopes to marry Lucy Wodehouse. Part of the Chronicles of Carlingford, the novel captures the fine gradations of church party and provincial standing while keeping its warm human center. Wit and moral seriousness sit easily together throughout. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers a favorite entry in Oliphant’s Carlingford series.