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 Miss Yonge The end of the M.S. reached me with your letter. I at once sent it to the Printer. Whatever alteration you may wish to make either in [illegible] or modifying can be done in the proof.
Miss Martin - whom I saw yesterday - agreed with me in this.
Yours very [illegible] Geo Lillie Craik
... continue readingMy dear Miss Sewell, Will not this do? The M.S is come?
Hoping for you on the 25th
Yours affectionately C M Yonge
... continue readingMy dear Christabel
The 1st of July is the right day, but it is convenient to be beforehand with it, as things get much better read than in the great mass of strangers. Miss Bramston has sent a splendid one called the Isle of Progress, - all about 500 years hence. Fanny Awdry has done rather a nice one of the boy type, and I have a few more but dying is so much ... continue reading
Dear Mr Macmillan I return the two letters, somewhat appalled at Miss Yonge’s statement that the 'Library' is to edit itself & no one is to be responsible. Of course this is not in accordance with your wish but do you not think it is a mistake which is certain to arise unless I - as Editor - take all the correspondence from the first. I see the force of your objection that I am a ... continue reading