Like Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers and Mrs Gaskell's The Cranford chronicles, The Doctor's Family, and other stories is a series of novels and short stories set in an imaginary Victorian town. I think the OUP edition is right to suggest that The Doctor's Family is a short novel, while the other two stories, The rector and The executor are short stories or novellas, as they are just about 30 pages long.

The stories are centred on medical doctors and there rivalry in their community. The three stories are interlinked and present views of the town called Carlingford. The stories are intense and achieve real involvement in the reader. They are a nice introduction to Victorian literature, especially because they are relatively short. ( )

But what did one come into the world for, I should like to know? Does anybody suppose it was just to be comfortable, and have one's own way? I have had my own way a great deal--more than most people. If I get crossed in some things, I have to bear it. That is all I am going to say. I have got other things to do, Miss Wodehouse. I shall never marry anybody in all my life.

"Dauntless" Nettie! Now here's an interesting character study. Her devotion to familial duty is jarringly counter-cultural to most modern Western ears, yet I suspect that Oliphant hoped her readers would want to give Nettie a vigorous shaking by the end. There is definitely something selfishly willful mixed up in it all, but I haven't figured her out yet.

I didn't like the Doctor. In fact, no one comes out smelling like a rose in this book.

However, if a line like this gets a laugh -- "Handsome young coxcomb, with all his Puseyitical pretences!" -- you might still find this, and the rest of the Carlingford books, worth your time. I'm certainly planning to finish the series, if I can track them down. ( )