Charlotte Yonge is one of the most influential and important of Victorian women writers; but study of her work has been handicapped by a tendency to patronise both her and her writing, by the vast number of her publications and by a shortage of information about her professional career. Scholars have had to depend mainly on the work of her first biographer, a loyal disciple, a situation which has long been felt to be unsatisfactory. We hope that this edition of her correspondence will provide for the first time a substantial foundation of facts for the study of her fiction, her historical and educational writing and her journalism, and help to illuminate her biography and also her significance in the cultural and religious history of the Victorian age.
Featured Letters...
My dear Madam, I send herewith a copy of Heartsease leaves, but I am afraid I must ask you to return it. I had some copies once sold for a bazaar, but they are all gone now, except one or two for home consumption of which I send one.
I am glad that the Christian names gave you any amusement
Yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue readingDear Mr Macmillan
Thank you much but it is an impossibility, I have to be at Aylesbury on Monday, and at home again on Saturday.
Yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue readingDear Madam I enclose the deed for Mrs. Yonge’s signature in one place only where you will see her name written in pencil. This signature should be made in the presence of a witness who will sign where shewn adding address & occupation, a householder is best, but a servant will do. You must not, of course, be the witness. Please leave the date blank & return me the deed as soon ... continue reading
Dearest Lizzie- Here am I writing to you out upon the lawn under the pleasant shade of the berberis. There ought to be a nightingale singing, for one lives at the corner, but he is a lazy bird, and year after year always is nearly silent after the first fortnight, though yesterday I not only heard but saw his fellow singing with all his might in a young oak, making his tail and wings quiver.
I had ... continue reading