Action adventure, romantic heroes, family life, artistic Bohemia, murder, fraud and addiction – Charlotte M Yonge (1823-1901) tackled all these themes, viewing them through a High Church lens. A bestseller in her time, she was read by all classes of society and appealed to all walks of life, from servants to soldiers, from priests to princesses.
Classic: The Heir of Redclyffe: A story of love, repentance and redemption, with a dashing but virtuous hero, it showed contemporary readers that chivalry and romance could exist in the modern world.
Or try this: The Daisy Chain: Foremost among the May children, whose mother dies at the start of the book, is Ethel May: awkward, intense, and deeply committed to her ideals, she is one of Yonge’s most loved characters.
Best biography or analysis of their work: Alethea Hayter’s Charlotte Yonge (Writers and their Work Series) packs a great deal of scholarship into this short and highly readable study of Charlotte M Yonge’s work.
To find out more about CMY’s life and works see www.cmyf.org.uk To find out more about the Fellowship’s activities, including our hosting of this year’s ALS AGM, and to join us, see https://charlottemyonge.org.uk/cmy/
The ALS supports local, independent bookshops and encourages you to buy from them. For those who prefer to shop online we include the Society chosen links above.
Alliance of Literary Societies 