 Later successes such as "The Gates of Eden" (1887) and "Maitland of Lauriston" (1891) owed a debt to the fiction of Margaret Oliphant, who was among her critics, accusing Swan's novels of presenting a stereotypical, unrealistic depiction of Scotland.In a review of "Carlowrie" (1884), Oliphant went so far as to say Swan "presented an entirely distorted view of Scottish life.