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...
Dear Mrs Johns,
So many thanks for the penwipers. They are exceedingly pretty, and will last long to be a pleasant remembrance. You will indeed miss your boys. When are you looking for a house? It will be a change from your beautiful garden.
I am going from home in a few days, so I am afraid I shall not see you before your move.
With many thanks Yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue readingMy dear little Maggie This is to wish you a very happy Christmas I think it must be happier than all the three Christmases before it, because you are old enough to know Who was born a little Baby and what the Angels came to sing while the Shepherds were watching by night. Thank you for your pretty little note to me; and thank Mamma and Alice too for theirs. I hope I shall ... continue reading
It was a great delight to me to receive a letter from Mr. Keble, by the February mail from England. How kind of him to write to me; and his words are such a help and encouragement.
I dare say I shall see Merivale’s Lectures soon. Nothing can well be so wonderful, as a proof of God’s hand controlling and arranging all the course of history to those who need it, as a subject for adoration ... continue reading
He has been with me for some years, always good and amiable; but too good-natured, too weak, so that he did not take a distinct line with his people. He is a person of some consequence in his neighbourhood. Now he gives all the proofs that can well be given of real sincerity. He wonders himself, as he contrasts his present with his former thoughts. I feel, humanly speaking, quite convinced that he is thoroughly ... continue reading