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 Barlee
The Bishop of Madagascar has sent me this sad history of devastation asking to have it made known in the Net, so I send it to you direct. It has wandered a little as I am making visits in Devonshire but I hope to be at home by the end of the month.
yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue readingMy dear Mr Moor The prizes I should like to propose would be - First Shew Best copy book by a school boy Knife
by a school girl Writing case
Second 25 sorts of wildflowers rightly labelled with English names by a school child Book on Flowers
Best set of samples of needle work by a school girl - consisting of hemming sewing stitching felling marking darning 5s 2nd Best --- 1s
I dont think it any use to propose the like in the autumn because there are few flowers, and work ... continue reading
My dear Miss Ingelow
Your letter has just come to me here in the midst of the steep hills and narrow valleys of North Devon. I think I must have been 2 years old when I saw the baby in the blue shawl, as my birthday is in August, and we generally went into Devon in the autumn. I do not think I taught myself to read, as I was then an only child much looked ... continue reading
Dear Mr Craik
I must go on with the Queen’s life now, for there is a letter from Sir Henry Ponsonby this morning, recommending me to dedicate it to the Queen’s daughters, which is a sort of acceptance. So I will gladly accept your kind offer of taking it and giving me half profits.
I never had much hope of the work and only was driven into it. I finished it yesterday, and send it off today ... continue reading