Charlotte Mary Yonge
Encyclopedia
Charlotte Mary Yonge was an English novelist, known for her huge output, now mostly out of print.
, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, née Bargus. She was educated at home by her father, studying Latin, Greek, French, Euclid
, and algebra. Her father's lessons could be harsh:
Yonge's devotion to her father was life-long and her relationship with him seems to have been for her the standard for all other relationships, including marriage. His "approbation was throughout life my bliss; his anger my misery for the time."
She was born into a religious family background, was devoted to the Church of England
, and much influenced by John Keble
, Vicar of Hursley
from 1835, a near neighbour and one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement
. Yonge is herself sometimes referred to as "the novelist of the Oxford Movement
", as her novels frequently reflect the values and concerns of Anglo-Catholicism
. She remained in Otterbourne all her life and for 71 years was a teacher in the village Sunday school
.
In 1868 a new parish was formed to the south of Yonge's home village of Otterbourne; the parish was to contain the villages of Eastley and Barton. Yonge donated £500 towards the parish church
and was asked to choose which of the two villages the parish should be named after. She chose Eastley, but decided that it should be spelt Eastleigh
as she perceived this as being more modern.
(1853), provided the funding to enable the schooner Southern Cross
to be put into service on behalf of George Selwyn
. Similar charitable works were done with the profits from later novels. Yonge was also a founder and editor for forty years of The Monthly Packet
, a magazine (founded in 1851) with a varied readership, but targeted at British Anglican girls (in later years it was addressed to a somewhat wider readership).
Among the best known of her works are The Heir of Redclyffe, Heartsease, and The Daisy Chain. A Book of Golden Deeds is a collection of true stories of courage and self-sacrifice. She also wrote Cameos from English History, Life of John Coleridge Patteson
: Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands and Hannah More
. Her History of Christian Names was described as "the first serious attempt at tackling the subject" and as the standard work on names in the preface to the first edition of Withycombe's The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 1944.
Her personal example and influence on her god-daughter, Alice Mary Coleridge, played a formative role in Coleridge's zeal for women's education and thus, indirectly, led to the foundation of Abbots Bromley School for Girls
.
After her death, her friend, assistant and collaborator, Christabel Coleridge, published the biographical Charlotte Mary Yonge: her Life and Letters (1903).
, George Eliot
, William Ewart Gladstone
, Charles Kingsley
, Christina Rossetti
, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Anthony Trollope
. William Morris
and Edward Burne-Jones
read The Heir of Redclyffe
aloud to each other while undergraduates at Oxford University and "took [the hero, Guy Morville's] medieval tastes and chivalric ideals as presiding elements in the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
." Yonge's work was compared favourably with that of Jane Austen
, Honoré de Balzac
, Gustave Flaubert
, Trollope, and Emile Zola
. So popular were her works that
Q.D. Leavis wrote in 1944 that Yonge's work must be inferior because her life had been "peculiarly starved," and that her Christian beliefs were "only an ignorant idealization projected by an inhuman theory" that resulted in a "moral cramp in the developing consciousness." According to critic Catherine Sandbach-Dahlström, this "tendency to confuse the moral quality of Charlotte Yonge's view of life with the quality of her literary expression has constantly be-deviled her work." Yonge's work has been little studied, with the possible exception of The Heir of Redclyffe.
Life
Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in OtterbourneOtterbourne
Otterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately four miles south of Winchester and eight miles north of Southampton. In October 2002, its population was approximately 1,520, and there were 602 dwellings....
, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, née Bargus. She was educated at home by her father, studying Latin, Greek, French, Euclid
Euclid
Euclid , fl. 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I...
, and algebra. Her father's lessons could be harsh:
He required a diligence and accuracy that were utterly alien to me. He thundered at me so that nobody could bear to hear it, and often reduced me to tears, but his approbation was so delightful that it was a delicious stimulus.... I believe, in spite of all breezes over my innate slovenliness, it would have broken our hearts to leave off working together. And we went on till I was some years past twenty.
Yonge's devotion to her father was life-long and her relationship with him seems to have been for her the standard for all other relationships, including marriage. His "approbation was throughout life my bliss; his anger my misery for the time."
She was born into a religious family background, was devoted to the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, and much influenced by John Keble
John Keble
John Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford.-Early life:...
, Vicar of Hursley
Hursley
Hursley is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England with a population of around 800 in 2005. It is located roughly mid-way between Romsey and Winchester on the A3090...
from 1835, a near neighbour and one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
. Yonge is herself sometimes referred to as "the novelist of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
", as her novels frequently reflect the values and concerns of Anglo-Catholicism
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
. She remained in Otterbourne all her life and for 71 years was a teacher in the village Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
.
In 1868 a new parish was formed to the south of Yonge's home village of Otterbourne; the parish was to contain the villages of Eastley and Barton. Yonge donated £500 towards the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
and was asked to choose which of the two villages the parish should be named after. She chose Eastley, but decided that it should be spelt Eastleigh
Eastleigh
Eastleigh is a railway town in Hampshire, England, and the main town in the Eastleigh borough which is part of Southampton Urban Area. The town lies between Southampton and Winchester, and is part of the South Hampshire conurbation...
as she perceived this as being more modern.
Literary career
She began writing in 1848, and published during her long life about 160 works, chiefly novels. Her first commercial success, The Heir of RedclyffeThe Heir of Redclyffe
The Heir of Redclyffe was the first of Charlotte M. Yonge's bestselling romantic novels. Its religious tone derives from the High Church background of her family and from her friendship with a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, John Keble, who closely supervised the writing of the book. The...
(1853), provided the funding to enable the schooner Southern Cross
Southern Cross (ship)
Southern Cross has been the name of a succession of ships serving the Melanesian Mission of the Anglican Church and the Church of the Province of Melanesia. She succeeded the Undine, a 21-ton schooner built at Auckland and in service from 1849 to 1857...
to be put into service on behalf of George Selwyn
George Augustus Selwyn
George Augustus Selwyn was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand from 1841 to 1858. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was Primate of New Zealand from 1858 to 1868. He was Bishop of Lichfield from 1868 to 1878...
. Similar charitable works were done with the profits from later novels. Yonge was also a founder and editor for forty years of The Monthly Packet
Monthly Packet
The Monthly Packet was an English magazine published between 1851 and 1899. It was founded by members of the Oxford Movement to counter Anglo-Catholic extremism. It was strongly influenced by its first editor, the novelist Charlotte Yonge. Its aims were to provide instruction, entertainment, and...
, a magazine (founded in 1851) with a varied readership, but targeted at British Anglican girls (in later years it was addressed to a somewhat wider readership).
Among the best known of her works are The Heir of Redclyffe, Heartsease, and The Daisy Chain. A Book of Golden Deeds is a collection of true stories of courage and self-sacrifice. She also wrote Cameos from English History, Life of John Coleridge Patteson
John Coleridge Patteson
John Coleridge Patteson was an Anglican bishop and martyr.Patteson was educated at The King's School, Ottery St Mary, Eton and then Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1853 in the Church of England...
: Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands and Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
. Her History of Christian Names was described as "the first serious attempt at tackling the subject" and as the standard work on names in the preface to the first edition of Withycombe's The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 1944.
Her personal example and influence on her god-daughter, Alice Mary Coleridge, played a formative role in Coleridge's zeal for women's education and thus, indirectly, led to the foundation of Abbots Bromley School for Girls
Abbots Bromley School for Girls
Abbots Bromley School for Girls is an independent, fee-paying school for girls aged 3–18 located in the village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, England...
.
After her death, her friend, assistant and collaborator, Christabel Coleridge, published the biographical Charlotte Mary Yonge: her Life and Letters (1903).
Reputation
Yonge's work was widely read and respected in the nineteenth century. Among her admirers were Lewis CarrollLewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
, George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
, William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley was an English priest of the Church of England, university professor, historian and novelist, particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire.-Life and character:...
, Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
. William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
and Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
read The Heir of Redclyffe
The Heir of Redclyffe
The Heir of Redclyffe was the first of Charlotte M. Yonge's bestselling romantic novels. Its religious tone derives from the High Church background of her family and from her friendship with a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, John Keble, who closely supervised the writing of the book. The...
aloud to each other while undergraduates at Oxford University and "took [the hero, Guy Morville's] medieval tastes and chivalric ideals as presiding elements in the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
." Yonge's work was compared favourably with that of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
, Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
, Trollope, and Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
. So popular were her works that
A midshipman was able to supply from memory a missing page in his ship's copy of The Daisy Chain. An officer in the Guards, asked in a game of "Confessions" what his prime object in life was, answered that it was to make himself like Guy Morville, hero of The Heir of Redclyffe.
Q.D. Leavis wrote in 1944 that Yonge's work must be inferior because her life had been "peculiarly starved," and that her Christian beliefs were "only an ignorant idealization projected by an inhuman theory" that resulted in a "moral cramp in the developing consciousness." According to critic Catherine Sandbach-Dahlström, this "tendency to confuse the moral quality of Charlotte Yonge's view of life with the quality of her literary expression has constantly be-deviled her work." Yonge's work has been little studied, with the possible exception of The Heir of Redclyffe.
Further reading
- Battiscombe, G. & Laski, M. (eds.) (1965) A Chaplet for Charlotte Yonge: papers by Georgina Battiscombe, Katharine Briggs, Lettice CooperLettice CooperLettice Ulpha Cooper, , was an English writer. She was born in Eccles, Lancashire on 3 September 1897. She began to write stories when she was seven, and studied Classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford graduating in 1918....
, Alice Fairfax-Lucy, Annis Gillie, Ruth Harris, Elizabeth Jenkins, Margaret Kennedy, Marghanita Laski, Violet Powell, Catherine Storr, Kathleen Tillotson, Rachel Townsend, together with genealogical tables & bibliography, also some little-known pieces by Charlotte Yonge "Last heartsease leaves, authorship, etc."; edited for the Charlotte Yonge Society by Georgina Battiscombe and Marghanita Laski. London: Cresset Press - Budge, Gavin (2003) "Realism and Typology in Charlotte M. Yonge’s The Heir of Redclyffe." Victorian Literature and Culture 31 (2003): 193–223.
- Coleridge, Christabel Rose (1903) Charlotte Mary Yonge: Her Life and Letters. London: Macmillan and Company
- Dennis, Barbara (1997) Introduction. The Heir of Redclyffe. Oxford: Oxford U. P.
- Hayter, Alethea (1996) Charlotte Yonge. Northcote House
- Jay, Elisabeth (2004) "Yonge, Charlotte Mary." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved on 8 May 2009.
- Sandbach-Dahlström, Catherine (1984) Be Good Sweet Maid: Charlotte Yonge's Domestic Fiction. Stockholm, Sweden: Almquist and Wiksell International ISBN 91-22-00658-3.
- Sturrock, June (1995) "Heaven and Home": Charlotte M. Yonge's Domestic Fiction and the Victorian Debate Over Women. Carlton, Vict.: University of Victoria ISBN 0-920604-84-6.
- Walton, Susan (2010) Imagining Soldiers and Fathers in the Mid-Victorian Era: Charlotte Yonge's Models of Manliness. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6959-3
- Wells-Cole, Catherine (2000) "Angry Yonge Men: Anger and Masculinity in the Novels of Charlotte M. Yonge." In Masculinity and Spirituality in Victorian Culture. Ed. by Andrew Bradstock, Sean Gill, Anne Hogan, and Sue Morgan. New York: St. Martin’s Press
External links
- Several works here as part of Project Canterbury
- Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship – Links to all known online works; articles about Yonge's works; extensive bibliography; biography etc.
- Background and Biography
- Works by Charlotte Mary Yonge in the University of Florida Digital CollectionsUniversity of Florida Digital CollectionsThe University of Florida Digital Collections are supported by the University of Florida Digital Library Center in the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The University of Florida Digital Collections comprise a constantly growing collection of digital resources from the...
- John Keble 's Parishes John KebleJohn KebleJohn Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford.-Early life:...
's Parishes – A History of HursleyHursleyHursley is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England with a population of around 800 in 2005. It is located roughly mid-way between Romsey and Winchester on the A3090...
and OtterbourneOtterbourneOtterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately four miles south of Winchester and eight miles north of Southampton. In October 2002, its population was approximately 1,520, and there were 602 dwellings....
. (1898) Edited by Charlotte M. Yonge - Letters of Charlotte Mary Yonge, ed. Jordan, Mitchell and Schinske (2007) – a complete edition of her correspondence, available online as part of SAS-Space