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 send you the proof of the Garland, which you had better return direct to
Messrs Mozley Friar Gate Derby
His printers are apt to make great havoc with botanical names, and then put puzzled queries in the margin which amuse me very much. I could not find St Gundula in Alban Butler, and so must leave that correction to you. You will see that I have made one or two little alterations. I did not like ... continue reading
It was a wonderful surprise, for the secret had been very well kept, and the day before I had a present from my former and present scholars which gave me great delight. £200 came with the autographs . . .
I do feel that Mr. Keble's blessing, ‘Prosper Thou the work of her hands upon her,’ has been most marvellously fulfilled, and this has brought me to think that the peculiar care ... continue reading
My dear Mr Moor I have a very kind woman, Mrs James Hoskins who has brought up 6 daughters and two waifs and strays very well - is a Communicant &c She has a vacancy now having lost an old aunt who lived with her and having now only a brother and sister 8 and 7, would be glad of another child.
Only the Waifs and Strays specify that other or lodgers must not be taken, meaning ... continue reading
My dear Mrs Buston
We shall be very glad to see you and Miss Dampier at 3 o’clock on Wednesday - I shall have to leave you at 4, as it is the day of the G F S quarterly meeting, when the girls pay in their money - and I read to them
Yours sincerely C M Yonge
... continue reading