Book Review: ‘The Double Life of Laurence Oliphant’

In Bart Casey’s new biography “The Double Life of Laurence Oliphant,” readers are introduced to a larger-than-life figure of the Victorian era.
Book Review: ‘The Double Life of Laurence Oliphant’
Post Hill Press
Chelsea Scarnegie
Updated:

Not your typical biography, “The Double Life” is a quirky book about a man who lived a life laced with adventure, high social standing, literary success, and participation in a bizarre cult.

Casey describes this Scottish aristocrat as leading a double life—politically and spiritually. It is not often that these two spheres coincide, but through his lifetime of experience, Laurence Oliphant is able to blend his two diverse lives into one unified purpose.

Oliphant’s spiritual side was cultivated from a young age, as his parents engaged him in a constant religious dialogue in which he was challenged to honestly analyze his moral life. In return, his parents were equally honest in sharing their own spiritual struggles.

“Indeed from about Laurence’s age of 10, both parents always spoke with him as an equal, no doubt imparting a good deal of added confidence to their already precocious son,” Casey writes.

Author Bart Casey
Author Bart Casey
Chelsea Scarnegie
Chelsea Scarnegie
Author
Chelsea is a recent graduate of Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN. She is a member of the blogging staff for Thistle Magazine, where she expresses her love for film, travel, and the written word. She is also a member of the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Society and was part of the editorial board for the Saint Mary’s literary magazine Chimes.
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