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 Yonge I am exceedingly vexed to find that proofs had not been sent to you of the first number of the 'Dove'. I am afraid that it has been much my fault. But as our Editor has generally been in direct communication with the contributors & has given the printers instructions to send, or sent the proofs himself it did not occur to me, and your notes asking for them did not make ... 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
Dear M. E. C. I feel strongly impelled to write to you both to thank you for your letter and for St. Christopher's legend. A German lady once sent me a set of photographs of frescoes of his history, where he was going through all sorts of temptations, including one by evil women.
I think I must tell you that the Daisy Chain was written just when I was fresh from the influence and guiding of ... continue reading