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 Beck
I hear that the Warden and the Echeverias have safely reached Otterbourne.
Thank you very much for them
Yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue readingDear Sir
Herewith I send copied out for me by a friend, a story for your Christmas number. I hope you will not think it either too long or too much of a child’s story.
The whole description of the carol singing past and present is from actual nature here. I have myself heard the verses about ‘Divers’ sung The Wolf incident likewise happened in this neighbourhood but ended in the fierce dog being killed. ... continue reading
Dear Mr Craik, I hope this letter is a sufficient acknowledgement of the £25, as I have no receipt stamp at hand and this village does not provide such articles, and as they must not be bought of the unprivileged I cannot beg or borrow too often from our worthy neighbours at the shop
Yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue readingDear Mr Innes The Castle Builders and Six Cushions are out of date, and need not be reprinted- unless as is just possible, Macmillan might like to purchase them for the sake of making up the set of my books.
Questions on the Epistles has never been of much use, so few Sunday Schools go on far enough to want them Nor has Sewing and Sowing been popular. I am sorry for Langley Little Ones for ... continue reading