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A guide to Charlotte Yonge, Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship, and this
website |
Characters & Scenes A new
book of Yonge studies of this book |
Le
Château de Melville. or
The Young Ladies Charlotte Yonge’s first published work, written (in French) when she was 15. Privately printed in 1839 in aid of Otterbourne Girls’ School. It has never been reprinted – until now ... Click here for details |
New book of Yonge studies published by CMYF
Characters & Scenes: Studies in Charlotte M. Yonge
edited by Julia Courtney & Clemence Schultze
ISBN 978-0-9557096-0-9
Click here to download the flyer and order form for this book
Charlotte M. Yonge was a leading Victorian novelist and a best-seller in her own time. Her books now attract considerable academic interest and still continue to appeal to the general reader. This collection of essays by Yonge specialists and scholars is published by the Charlotte M. Yonge Fellowship.
The book concludes with a transcript of the sermon preached shortly after Yonge's death, by Canon Robert Moberly at St Matthew's, Otterbourne, and an extensive bibliography of works by and about Yonge.
This collection of studies in Charlotte M. Yonge will therefore not only be welcomed by those who are already admirers of her books but will also introduce the life and work of this extraordinary Victorian writer to a much wider readership.
REVIEWER COMMENTS ON THIS BOOK
“A collection of essays which will interest newcomers to Yonge and confirmed devotees alike. Their emphasis on Yonge’s changing responses to a variety of religious, social and educational issues, over half a century of her writing life, challenges the conventional sepia tones of older accounts. ”
PROFESSOR ELISABETH JAY
OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY
“Charlotte Yonge has been overlooked and belittled for far too long — perhaps this collection will be the beginning of a renaissance in Yonge studies.”DR CHARLOTTE MITCHELL
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
“An engaging review of Charlotte Yonge’s fiction by a body of real experts on her ‘domestic Robinson Crusoes’ — stories of moral and material survival in her legendary enormous families. The essays employ both innovative and traditional critical approaches to explore many aspects of her work, including what she read and what critics said about her, her interest in women’s work, and her consciousness of the body and its discomforts. New research on her ‘Goslings’ demonstrates the extent of her influence on the next generation of women writers. This is a fresh and readable reappraisal of Charlotte Yonge’s importance as a popular and serious Victorian novelist.”PROFESSOR VALERIE SANDERS
UNIVERSITY OF HULL
“This collection of essays draws attention to the depth and insight offered by Yonge’s quite extraordinarily prolific writing career. Still a relatively neglected author, her work testifies to the significance of the domestic, indeed ‘feminine’ dimension of faith in the Victorian period. An impressive range of perspectives is offered by the different contributors, who explore everything from Yonge’s rather fugitive children’s pieces to her more mainstream novels.”PROFESSOR DENNIS WALDER
OPEN UNIVERSITY
About Charlotte Yonge ...
"... the ideas that she promulgated through her books, through her personal influence and through her letters were actually major ideas for a key generation of Victorian women – the women born in the second half of the 1840's who went on to become the first generation of women head teachers, who founded the Girls' High Schools, and who became the Principals of the new women's colleges at various universities." (Julia Courtney, Open University)
"... one could say that this [Yonge's Monthly Packet] was one of the first teenage magazines that was ever written ... " (Amy de Gruchy, UCL) "... she's not a feminist, but she doesn't say that being a woman lets you out of anything at all ... " (Julia Courtney, Open University)
About the Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship, and its website ...
This website is intended as a focus for scholarly and general information on the life and works of the Victorian novelist and writer Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901).
Yonge was a best-selling author in her time. Her output was prodigious – over 250 works. Most were reprinted many times, and many were published all over the world in the orginal English and in translation.
Today, an increasing number of Yonge's works are available in commercial print editions and as cheap print-on-demand versions. About 100 of her works are available free online from Project Gutenberg, Google Books, and other libraries and agencies. You can read or download these directly from our list of works page.
There are now a couple of free talking books (from Librivox). Some of Yonge's works in Google Books may be difficult for you to download if you are in England or Europe -- Google's lawyers seem to believe that some books published in England before 1901 - though in the public domain - are still subject to copyright in the UK !
Much of this website relates to her works, bringing together publication details, plot summaries, contemporary and modern reviews, links to texts in all formats, and general and scholarly material. We have a very extensive bibliography of Yonge-related publications, and we link to a range of other Victorian, literary and artistic sites.
Interest in the Victorian era and in women writers such as Charlotte Yonge is growing all the time, as the steadily-increasing total of Yonge-related theses and conference papers show.
If you know of, discover or write something which we could link to or include, whether scholarly or popular, please click here to send us details.
The Charlotte M Yonge Fellowship itself is open to all. It organises regular meetings in the UK. It also publishes a twice-yearly Review (free to members) and the more scholarly Journal. We have recently set up an archive of Yonge and Yonge-related works held at St Hugh's College in Oxford University. Fellowship members may use our Loan Collection of Charlotte Yonge works, and have unrestricted access to the extensive members' area of this CMYF website.
Membership is very cheap indeed -- and joining is simple. See our membership page for how to join the Fellowship – and how surprisingly little it costs.