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 Mr Macmillan, The lamp is decidedly a bright thought. I will add a bit about Miss Nightingale to the introduction to bring it in appropriately.
Yours very truly C. M. Yonge
... continue readingDear Mr Macmillan
I am not certain whether it was mentioned that sheets of the Trial were to be sent to Messrs Williams and Norgate to be forwarded to M. Tauchnitz. He has just written to me to ask for them which makes me mention it.
I send the chapters of The Trial, all but the three last, which shall follow in a week or fortnight.
Yours faithfully C. M. Yonge
... continue readingMy dear Mr Macmillan I waited to answer till I had my proofs back again. I am not quite sure what is the best line now to take. Indeed I suppose after all that it is never quite possible for one person’s idea to be thoroughly realized by another. My notion was to show first why the Incarnation was needed, and then to trace the gradually expanding promises and stages of preparation - making each of ... continue reading
I send a Château de Melville, and if you do not stick fast in it I should be amused to hear if you can identify the people with the Magnanimous Mohuns in their youth, that is to say, tell which is the origin of which. I have a most funny series of MSS. connecting them, which my executors may hereafter publish as a curious piece of literary history- I don’t mean that I keep them ... continue reading