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 Madam, I am obliged by the kind manner in which you have received my suggestions, and I must pursue the Lotus controversy a little further with the assistance of Liddell and Scott’s dictionary.
Λωτος, it says, is the name of several plants often wrongly confounded. The Egyptian Lotus or Lily of the Nile, white or blue blossoms at the time of the overflowing of the Nile, and of the Ganges, and thus both in Egyptian and ... continue reading
My dear Mr Macmillan Thanks for the cheque and for the proposal about the Historical selections. I am sending it on to Miss Sewell to see whether she consents, it is what I myself should prefer, thinking joint accounts would be troublesome. The Cameo looks exceedingly well and gives an uncommon appearance. I should like a copy to be sent to the Dean of Chichester and one to Madame de Witt. To other friends I think ... continue reading
Dear Madam
I am today sending your book to Macmillans 29 and 30 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, and asking if they can give you one of my books to illustrate. It might be a good plan for you to call there, tomorrow or next day. Send up your card and ask for Mr Craik or Mr Macmillan, mentioning my name.
If you cannot call, write, and say how the book shall be returned asking if ... continue reading