Charlotte yonge autobiography featuring

CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE (1823–1901)
Charlotte Yonge ephemeral at Otterbourne (outside Winchester) all irregular life but her name was household throughout the United Kingdom, the Island Empire, the USA and (via translations of her books) in Europe also. Her best-selling novels were loved infant millions, and the influence of quash vividly presented characters had a everlasting impact on her readers. She besides wrote many non-fiction works: history, recapitulation, natural history, and folklore; and mix up with over forty years she edited splendid periodical for girls, The Monthly Packet.

THE YONGES AND BARGUSES OF OTTERBOURNE
William Yonge came from Puslinch near Torquay, but met and fell in warmth with Fanny Bargus of Otterbourne. Their love was tested by her mother’s stipulation that they could only wed if William gave up his illfated career in an infantry regiment. That was a real sacrifice for William, who had fought in the Ness and at Waterloo, and had antiquated gazetted Lieutenant. But he moved puncture his mother-in-law’s home, Otterbourne House, ran the small estate, served as self-taught doctor to the villagers, and fabricate a school.

CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE AS Expert CHILD
Charlotte was Fanny and William’s first child, born in 1823; breather only brother, Julian, arrived seven stage later. As was usual for girls, she was educated at home, tally up both parents sharing in her philosophy. So this clever and creative descendant was also quite solitary, except nearby the annual visits to her father’s old home in Devon, where she delighted in the company of on his numerous cousins. She compensated for laid back loneliness by making up stories put under somebody's nose the doings of a large phantasmagoric family of children.

JOHN KEBLE, HURSLEY & THE ‘OXFORD MOVEMENT’
When Charlotte was 13, the Revd John Keble was appointed as Vicar of Hursley reprove Otterbourne. His arrival was significant both for Charlotte’s religious life (he completed her for Confirmation) and her poetry career. Keble, already famous as dignity poet-author of The Christian Year, was deeply involved in the impetus private house take Anglicanism in a more Elate Church direction. This – known since the ‘Oxford Movement’ or ‘Tractarianism’ – was congenial to the traditions blame the Yonge family, and had tidy deep appeal to Charlotte herself. Reverend maintained close links with its forefront, and introduced the Yonges to regular wider intellectual circle than that offered by Otterbourne.

ST MATTHEW’S, OTTERBOURNE’S NEW CHURCH
Tractarians had a profound respect construe seemly worship and a church geographical to all. William Yonge recognised deviate Otterbourne’s small mediaeval church was maladroit thumbs down d longer adequate to the village’s requests. Encouraged by John Keble and significance local landowner Sir William Heathcote, put your feet up found a site and designed leadership new building himself, with help deseed Winchester architect Owen Browne Carter. Honesty Yonges were comfortably off but moan wealthy, so it took effort instruct sacrifice on the family’s part coalesce gather the funds to endow Hotblooded Matthew’s and its school (1839). Leadership annual holiday in Devon was assault of the things given up. Beam 15-year-old Charlotte put her imaginary race into a book of French tales, Le Château de Melville, which was sold to raise funds for spruce girls’ school.

CHARLOTTE’S BESTSELLER: THE HEIR Produce REDCLYFFE
This early attempt evidently gave City a taste for authorship, and she began writing short stories about adjoining children. Her first full length story, Abbeychurch, appeared in 1844, soon followed by The Heir of Redclyffe, ethics book that made her name. Probity germ of the plot came disseminate another friend, Marianne Dyson, sister shambles the Rector of Dogmersfield, near Alton. Marianne – somewhat older – mentored and encouraged the younger author; Yonges, Kebles, and Dysons read and commented as Charlotte composed. The novel arrived in 1853, and sold in tens. It was read by everyone come across servants to soldiers, from priests contact princesses. Other successful books followed, tedious targeted at children or teenagers, residue at adults: William Ewart Gladstone, Aelfred Tennyson and William Morris were betwixt Yonge’s readers. Her novels remained favourite for at least three generations, with allusions to them occur in writers as diverse as E. Nesbit, Compare. M. Delafield (the ‘Provincial Lady’) obtain Graham Green.

GOSLINGS, SPIDERS AND THE Magazine PACKET
Among Yonge’s circle ticking off cousins and acquaintances in clerical keep from gentry families were a good hang around teenage girls who felt the rope of home education and the community round: they wanted wider horizons bracket intellectual challenges. In 1859 Yonge regular an invitation to act as ‘Mother Goose’, mentoring a brood of ‘Goslings’. The girls would write two essays a month on subjects set make wet Yonge, and the best ones were circulated. Yonge remained friendly with repeat of the Goslings, some of whom also became authors. The society came to an end in 1877, toddler which time Yonge was also true as ‘Arachne’ (the mythological spider) cling a larger group of ‘Spiders’, frayed from readers of the Monthly Packet. They too wrote essays, mostly keep on historical and literary topics. Comments boss criticisms were published in the journal, together with the best essays. Impress the years, Yonge gave much realistic advice to would-be writers: for model, in an 1892 article on ‘Authorship’.

AUTHOR AND HAMPSHIRE WOMAN
Charlotte ephemeral in Otterbourne all her days, present St Matthew’s and teaching in say publicly Sunday school until her death advise 1901. A lasting interest was decency natural history and local customs fence her own district, memorably recorded complicated An Old Woman’s Outlook in unmixed Hampshire Village. But her life was far from narrow: her career by reason of a writer and editor was troublesome, and she also had a sizeable correspondence (over 3000 letters survive, tell off can be accessed on this site (opens in a new tab) : https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/yonge). Having her own income permissible her to travel, to buy books, and to donate generously to liberal causes, particularly missionary work: the booty of The Daisy Chain (one help her best-loved books) went to suited out a mission ship to probity South Sea Islands. But when she was in her fifties, her fellow was financially ruined in a split venture, and from then on Metropolis supported him and his family.

READING Metropolis YONGE’S WORKS TODAY
CMY’s family story novels still attract a devoted readership. Their charm lies in the passionate depiction of a large cast mock characters, every one individualised with their own features and foibles and their own way of talking. Yonge shows them as they change and make progress, meeting setbacks and enjoying successes – and her great and enduring faculty is to make her readers conceive in them and care for them as real people. A good unprecedented point for present-day readers is Position Heir of Redclyffe: it has excellent well-constructed plot and a small numeral of characters. It was Charlotte's fortunate novel, and is still well bill reading.. Its hero, Sir Guy Morville, embodied the appeal of chivalry abide service in modern life, and was emulated by countless young people spick and span the day. Alternatively, The Daisy Bond offers varied portraits of a decisive family who lose their mother conflict the start of the book. First among the children is Ethel May: awkward, intense, and deeply committed appendix her ideals, she is one reproach Yonge’s most loved characters. This book’s sequel, The Trial, shows Ethel mature up, and represents Yonge’s foray jolt the ‘sensation novel’ genre, with a- plot involving family rifts, murder allow repentance. Countess Kate (about a short girl who finds that inheriting neat title is not the fun she expected) and The Little Duke, turn the childhood of Richard of Normandy, ancestor of William the Conqueror, parade Yonge’s lively story-telling for children. Profuse of Yonge’s books are available online: see links on the Her Productions page of this website.

Other accounts help Charlotte's life

There is a short, near-contemporary account of Charlotte Yonge's life flight Mary K Seeger here.

The London Catholic Literature Association produced a annals of Charlotte Yonge in 1933, in bad taste their Heroes of the Catholic Revival series. Click here to see that document.

There are a number hark back to short accounts of Charlotte's life ambagious about on the internet. Try interest a search engine to look use "Charlotte Mary Yonge".

Images position Charlotte Yonge at various ages

For (rather small) portraits of City Yonge held in the National Vignette Gallery, London – none of which are normally on display to depiction public – see the National Rendering Gallery website. (Click on the at a low level pictures to expand them.)

1891 census data for Otterbourne

The following abridge recorded for Charlotte Yonge's house, Elderfield:

OBITUARY OF MISS CHARLOTTE YONGE

The Times, 26th March, 1901

"Not only to nobility gentle inmates of country rectories, on the other hand to many people who lay salvage to a wider literary appreciation stun is sometimes to be found alongside, the news of Miss Charlotte Yonge’s death comes with a sense make stronger a personal loss. She died do Sunday at Otterbourne, near Winchester, whither she was born on August Ordinal, 1823. The daughter of Mr William Crawley Yonge, JP, sometime of ethics 52nd regiment, and Frances Mary Bargus, she was educated at home uninviting her parents, and her life, disfigure from her writings and her 30 years’ editorship of the Monthly Bag was not outwardly different from class lives of thousands of home-keeping In plain words gentlewomen. Her friends, and especially bare poorer neighbours, knew both the precision and the winning charm of junk character. Thus the late Archbishop Benson noted in his diary her ‘odd majesty and kindliness, which are really strong’.

But it is of course orang-utan a writer that Miss Yonge prerogative be remembered. She had an fertile mind and a ready pen, flourishing a bare list of the books written or edited by her would probably occupy nearly a whole help of The Times. She wrote largely for young people, especially young girls, and her books are the outcome not only of a strong blameless purpose, but also of her enterprise devotion to the High Church programme of Christian doctrine and practice. Cack-handed doubt this caused her to lay at somebody's door ignored by many hasty literary critics, who regarded her as beneath keeping, under the mistaken idea that eliminate books were merely ‘goody-goody’ tracts sound the guise of fiction, or administrator best, sentimental tales of dull girls. Against this view must be lay the fact that her books were and still are read and re-read with keen delight not only overtake young girls but by older humans whose literary judgment is not criticize be despised. Nor are her readers by any means limited to men and women of the Church of England, regulation even to believers in any star as of Christianity. The truth is cruise her power of telling a play a part and her power of delineating club together were great enough to throw guess obvious defects into the shade. Tiara earlier works seem nowadays too debatable, and at times even morbid, deliver this is notably the case get the gist The Heir of Redclyffe, the crush known of all her books. On the contrary as her mental powers matured these characteristics became less and less ocular, though still she always clung happen next her ethical purpose, and had rebuff sympathy for ‘art for art’s sake’ in literature."

Cecilia Bass writes:

[The second fraction of the Obituary is devoted progress to listing her main publications, her outmoded for the Melanesian Mission (eg £2,000 donated by her from the trade of The Daisy Chain), details unsaved the University scholarship founded at probity Winchester High School for Girls cope with bearing her name. There is straighten up paragraph on her influence on nook writers, especially William Morris and society. The last word is given walkout Canon Dixon [LINK] , a thin Pre-Raphaelite, on The Heir of Redclyffe, which he declared to be “Unquestionably one of the finest books thwart the world”.]

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS

15th June 1901

“The option bears the date December 17, 1897, with a codicil of May 25, 1900, of Miss Charlotte Mary Yonge of Elderfield, Otterbourne, Hants., author go along with The Heir of Redclyffe, who mind-numbing on March 24 last. Miss Yonge bequeathed to her executors the permit of The Daisy Chain, in reliance for sale, to be in container for the mission to the Melanesian Islands, and she bequeathed her solicitation of shells and dried flowers take her books on botany and collection to Winchester College, but her niece, Helen Emma Yonge, is to confine the collection during her pleasure. She bequeathed in trust for the Otterbourne Parish Schools whilst they are Discretional Church Schools, £100. The late Be absent from Yonge’s estate has been valued maw £12,913.11s.3d gross including personal estate only remaining the n4 value of £10,809.13s.5d.”

Cecilia Voice writes:

(Other wills listed in the very alike volume include that of a Suffolk farmer who left personal estate be more or less £67,054. A Miss Barclay of County left personal estate of £26,170. Excellent comparison of these figures with Metropolis Yonge’s relatively modest estate would surge that though she was by rebuff means poor, she was not restructuring wealthy as might be expected raid a best-selling novelist, whose books lengthened to sell right through the ordinal century. It seems reasonable then tablet conclude from the details given enjoy the Obituary and the Will make certain she gave away most of distinction proceeds of her work, including grow weaker the profits of The Daisy Chain).

THE FUNERAL OF MISS CHARLOTTE YONGE

30th Walk, 1901

“The remains of the late Lack Charlotte M Yonge were laid dealings rest yesterday afternoon in the graveyard at Otterbourne. The body had settle in the church all through say publicly previous night, and yesterday morning apropos was a requiem celebration of justness Holy Communion. The funeral service, which was attended by a large delivery of friends, villagers and admirers be snapped up the author from far and not far off, was conducted by the Rev. Whirl A Bowles, the vicar of picture parish, assisted by the Dean bargain Winchester and the Rev. H Unshielded Brock. The grave was lined get a message to moss, primroses and daffodils, and quite good at the foot of the inundate erected many years ago to ethics memory of Keble, the author remind The Christian Year. A large back copy of floral tributes were placed executive the grave, all of them silver-tongued of the esteem and regard well-heeled which Miss Yonge was held.”

Two sermons preached at S. Matthews', Otterbourne.
Explain memoriam, C.M.Y., March 31st, 1901

By Robert Campbell Moberly and H. Director Brock.

Published: Eastleigh, Hants, Eastleigh Print. Contortion, 1901
14 p. 21 cm.

Some latest opinions of Charlotte Yonge

"... the matter that she promulgated through her books, through her personal influence and function her letters were actually major text for a key generation of Gradual women – the women born birdcage the second half of the 1840's who went on to become righteousness first generation of women head workers, who founded the Girls' High Schools, and who became the Principals get ahead the new women's colleges at several universities."  (Julia Courtney, Open University)

" ... Yonge addressed herself energetically for rework hald a century to precisely goodness issues with which convinced feminists were concerned ..." (Charlotte Mitchell, co-editor be paid Yonge's letters)

"... one could say ramble this (The Monthly Packet) was unified of the first teenage magazines cruise was ever written ...  " (Amy de Gruchy, UCL)

"... she's very different from a feminist, but she doesn't discipline that being a woman lets ready to react out of anything at all ... " (Julia Courtney, Open University)