An odd couple by Mrs. Oliphant
"An odd couple" by Mrs. Oliphant is a novel written in the late 19th century. It follows Charles and Ada Tremenheere, a cultivated but ill-matched pair whose constant clashes over principles and social ideals lead them to contemplate—and then enact—a decorous separation, splitting their children, lively Vera and sensitive Eddy, between them. The narrative probes marital incompatibility, reputation, and gendered ideas of education. Elinor Meadows, a blunt, progressive friend, and Miss Campbell,
a severe governess, intensify the family’s battle between affection, pride, and principle. The opening of the novel traces the cool, startling moment when Charles proposes parting and Ada, unshaken, agrees, turning a morning quarrel into a life-altering decision. Attempts at dinner-table conciliation fail; Elinor arrives as mediator; and the children reveal the rift in small ways—Vera’s bold chatter, Eddy’s quiet loyalty—before Ada departs with Eddy on Christmas Eve, leaving Vera with her father. Ada’s anxious over-mothering soon makes Eddy pale and timid until Elinor prods her to send him to a public school near a new home she rents; meanwhile Charles, alarmed by Vera’s unchecked freedom (even in the servants’ hall), installs the austere Miss Campbell. The section culminates at Lord’s: years have passed, Eddy is captain of the eleven, Vera—now sixteen—watches him with rapt pride, while, at a distance in the crowd, her mother gazes at her grown “child,” feeling the ache of their long separation. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.html.images | 316 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.epub3.images | 371 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.epub.images | 374 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.epub.noimages | 208 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.kf8.images | 619 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.kindle.images | 583 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78381.txt.utf-8 | 286 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/78381/pg78381-h.zip | 367 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret), 1828-1897 |
|---|---|
| Title | An odd couple |
| Original Publication | Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1900. |
| Credits | Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Married people -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78381 |
| Release Date | Apr 7, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 360 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |