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 Miss Butler Many thanks for Chapter XV which is very lively and promising, and in itself is all that the Packet could wish, though of course I know it is but a single brick of the house which you have not yet built. It amused us exceedingly, and your writing is so easy to read that it is as pleasant as having a chapter of some printed book sent to us. Shall ... continue reading
My dear Miss Yonge The photograph is from a picture by Mr Farren the young artist whom I wanted to illustrate your Bethlehem. I was anxious to know that you thought him up to the mark. The picture was from Kingsleys Saints Tragedy, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary carrying her child to the altar in the early morning. I think it indicates a power considerably above average of entering into a spiritual conception. But I should be ... continue reading
My dear Miss Smith, If I had not been very busy yesterday I should then have written to welcome your offer of sending me your story to read. We should like to have it very much, but as I shall be from home next week, would you be so kind as not to send it till Christmas Eve? Then I shall hope to begin it on the Monday. I daresay its destination ... continue reading
My dear Fanny, You and Emily have exactly the memory that may be called kind – Many thanks to you for the very pretty little snow tip butterflies, which are of a species highly to be commended. I hope shortly to wear them into Devonshire where I believe we are going next month - I think the present visitors at the Vicarage are decidedly wholesome, being the brother and sister but I dread the chance of ... continue reading