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 Macmillan, I sent the drawing by the train yesterday. It was very dull of me not to have seen that it was a drawing. Our only other criticism is that a touch or two might make the little Duke’s limbs more child like.
As a matter of fact I believe the Normans did not wear beards, but I only found this out long after the book was out, so book and beard must both stand ... continue reading
My dear C C Do you know that Innes’s stock has been taken by Ward & Lock? I heard it second hand from a lady who has been enquiring after her goods. I suppose you had the letter asking creditors to accept 5 per cent. I asked what was become of the remains of what was half mine and half theirs and was told that Tanner did not know. I think we ... continue reading
My dear Cyril
Thank you for your story. Here is one for you in return.
The Boy who rode on a Saddle of Mutton
There was a little boy who always got whatever he cried for. One day he was at dinner with his father and mother, there was a large piece of meat in a dish. He heard them call it a Saddle of mutton. ‘O’ said he ‘I must ride on ... continue reading
My dear Miss Medhurst
It is ungrateful not to have thanked you sooner but your letter came while I was from home and I have since been working through the accumulation of things that had arisen on me
What a good photograph yours is. I am sure they are much improved since there was only a little face on the top of a great crinoline. I am afraid the Infirmaries in many places - as well as ... continue reading