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 Mary
Gertrude has brightened up this week but she had an embarras de richesses on Wednesday for Jane Harper, two children, Bella Heathcote Mrs Buston and Emily Dampier all came. She could not see the last two but they are coming on Wednesday afternoon to see her.
We had 104 communicants today - 50 early and 54 late. Frances was neuralgic and could not come out so Maurice was alone. George has grown ... continue reading
My dear Miss Smith,
I think your answer is a very wise one, and quite what I can understand. I am sure with all the poor I have known unusual help unless on some very pressing occasion would be anything but really beneficial, but the three old couples might be most happily provided, and I hope Mrs Elphinstone may choose that way of spending the sum. I will put what you say before her, thank you ... continue reading
My dear Miss Smith
I have kept your French journal a terrible time, and I am sorry to say I cannot get it in after all. It is rather too much trodden ground, and even you cannot make it new enough. I think you will soon get a huge piece of the Banks of the Thorne to finish them with the year if possible, and then we begin on our new principles. I hope the enclosed ... continue reading
Dear Mr Innes
Next year’s programme is my own Two Penniless Princesses - historical longish chapters. Miss Agnes Giberne has promised a story - and the Storm in a Teacup has to go on another half year I tried doubling the chapters, but there was not room. I think it is a mistake to sacrifice the story to the volume, as often in those I read, I see the development has been injured to get ... continue reading