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Abbeychurch
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- GenresVictorian
196 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 12, 2012
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Charlotte Mary Yonge
718 books73 followersCharlotte Mary Yonge was an English novelist, known for her huge output, now mostly out of print.
She began writing in 1848, and published during her long life about 160 works, chiefly novels. Her first commercial success, The Heir of Redclyffe (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).
-Wikipedia
The Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship, a website with lots of information.
See Charlotte's character page for books about her.
She began writing in 1848, and published during her long life about 160 works, chiefly novels. Her first commercial success, The Heir of Redclyffe (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).
-Wikipedia
The Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship, a website with lots of information.
See Charlotte's character page for books about her.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 13, 2024
This is an endearing first novel from one of my favorite Victorian novelists Charlotte Mary Yonge. She captures family life and the dynamics of relationships so well already at age 21. I love to think of her putting pen to paper at such a young age and creating the first of her many wonderful characters. As we talked about in our buddy read group, many of the hallmarks of later Yonge novels are here and her skills definitely improved by leaps and bounds as she continued to hone her craft after this first novel. The Heir of Redclyffe was published just nine years after this novel, and it was one of the most popular novels of the Victorian period!
Abbeychurch features a group of teenage girls who are under the same roof for ten days to celebrate the consecration of a brand new church building. There are three older sisters, several female cousins, and some younger sisters who are still in the school room. It turns out that the dynamics between teenage girls and between sisters haven’t changed that much in almost 200 years. 😂 This story is pretty thin on plot but if you’ve read other Yonge novels, the plot that is here is quintessential Yonge. I recommend starting with other Yonge novels first, like Dyvenor Terrace, The Stokesley Secret, and The Heir of Redclyffe, but if you love Yonge in all her idiosyncrasies as a writer and person, this is a warm, funny, and relatable story.
Abbeychurch features a group of teenage girls who are under the same roof for ten days to celebrate the consecration of a brand new church building. There are three older sisters, several female cousins, and some younger sisters who are still in the school room. It turns out that the dynamics between teenage girls and between sisters haven’t changed that much in almost 200 years. 😂 This story is pretty thin on plot but if you’ve read other Yonge novels, the plot that is here is quintessential Yonge. I recommend starting with other Yonge novels first, like Dyvenor Terrace, The Stokesley Secret, and The Heir of Redclyffe, but if you love Yonge in all her idiosyncrasies as a writer and person, this is a warm, funny, and relatable story.
October 13, 2024
A charming and delightful novel of manners that reminded me of the witty writing and domestic settings of Jane Austen in many ways! It was also fascinating to observe, in her very first novel, the presence of all the hallmarks of CMY’s writing that characterize her mature style: relational healing, the process of sanctification, the beauty of the Church, and discussions surrounding what constitutes a “good” education. I really enjoyed it! Thanks to my buddy reading group for the great conversation along the way! 😊
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October 14, 2024Abbeychurch is the charming first novel of Charlotte Mary Yonge. Overall, I found this to be a middle of the road Yonge novel, but I enjoyed seeing the foundations of her writing as well as how she improves in later books. Her characters have sparkling wit that are reminiscent of Jane Austen characters, and her family dynamics are always so well done. This plot wasn't as engaging to me as her other works, but I am glad I read this one, and it was an enjoyable read!
December 2, 2021
I loved Yonge’s Daisy Chain series and was excited to read her again, so I decided on her first book, “Abbeychurch”. I was a little disappointed because it did not even rate near the other two I had read but I enjoyed this nonetheless. It was a bit choppy at first but as I continued it became easier to read. I read from a Delphi complete edition of her works that included the below synopsis. As stated below the consecration is not told in detail but a very quick overview which kept me wondering what the ceremony all contained. This story is about a clergyman’s family and relatives. Mr. Woodbourne has been remarried after his wife’s death, so the children of both marriages as well as extended family issues are the main stay. This had a little of a Jane Austin feel, in the relation to the characters exchange. The religious element less apparent compared to Pansy or Grace Livingston Hill. The segment of the learned ladies exchanging their thoughts on history was quite dry and over my head, not knowing English or Greek history to that extent. It is sad to see how socialism has gained ground since then, it becomes clearer how it and especially communism looks to decrease religion in general. There are lessons learned about self control and self conceit which looking back at Victorian era quite different than this era of basically everything goes. It is sad to see how big of a change has taken place and how if a person of that time where transported in the future, what a high culture shock would ensue. The use of “vulgar” is quite silly here, it seems that “vulgar” is too broad and I was glad that after a time the word rarely came up again, the beginning of the book it was overused. I hope as I read her again, it will be more in the line of the “Daisy Chain” which is indeed a wonderful read.
Story in short- The Woodbournes are celebrating the new church with extended family and the interplay with the family members.
"This novel was published in 1844 and features as its theme a topic that must have been dear to the heart of Yonge, who was a devout Anglican: the consecration of a new church; in this case in the fictional town of Abbeychurch St Mary’s. A quotation from the sermons of Cardinal John Henry Newman, friend of the Oxford movement (a high church theological group with which Yonge was closely acquainted) prefaces the book, and is an interesting reflection of the author’s own preoccupations. On its publication the Cambridge Chronicle of 10 August 1844 (apart from attributing the novel to the wrong author) stated that it was a story aimed at the younger reader, but it is more accurate to describe it as light reading for any age group."
"The story straddles the consecration of the new church of St Austin’s in Abbeychurch St Mary’s. The town is a place of contrasts — the gentility of the old local society, and the new trades and suburbs of mid Victorian England — in this case, an influx of “new money” retiring into the area to live in the newly constructed villas. As urbanised industrial and residential areas developed in the English provinces, the Anglican church found itself ill-equipped to cater for the growing populations and did not have enough churches"
"for many urban areas, so the building of a new church would have been a theme familiar to many readers in the mid nineteenth century — as Yonge puts it, “a deficiency in church accommodation was soon felt”. Closer to home, no doubt Yonge’s father’s involvement in the building or rebuilding of three churches had an impact on her choice of subject for this novel."
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert ❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
"In addition, Lizzie, a central character and one of the daughters of the local vicar, also personifies contemporary contrasts; although she has impeccable credentials socially, she also seems not to fit them, being adventurous, lively and rather impatient of the restrictions of her life — she is “the merriest of the merry party”. Lizzie is also passionate about romantic tales of chivalry, to the point where she, her easy-going friend Anne and a family acquaintance, Harriet, make an ill-advised decision to go to a lecture on chivalry at the newly built Mechanic’s Institute (a form of adult education venue for working people) in the town, despite being warned by her sister Helen: “Do you not know... that Socialists often hold"
"forth at Mechanic’s Institutes?” to which Lizzie retorts that that sort of thing happened more in the North, not where they lived, and not to worry as they would not turn into Chartists anyway. To the dismay of the family and their circle of acquaintance, the visit by the vicar’s daughter to the Institute is gleefully reported in the local press, a severe lesson to the girls not to transgress social boundaries. The mistake is compounded when it transpires that Fido the dog, who should have been in their care, was accidentally"
"drowned, whilst the girls were in the Institute. After the event, Lizzie finds out that her father was vehemently opposed to the arrival of the Institute in the town, and had declared he never wanted his daughters to go near the place. How will he react to news of Lizzie’s actions? A novel with a diverse array of characters, Abbeychurch offers a spectrum of manners, character, generation and social attitudes, but the real interest in the story is the young women — gentle, charming observational vignettes of well-born Victorian females. In that sense, the plot, such as it is, is secondary to its appeal as a character study of the young woman of the day. Despite the deep involvement Yonge had with her faith and her church, the consecration is not described in any detail, a deliberate omission by her so as not to disrespect the sanctity of the process."
"‘Never think yourself safe because you do your duty in ninety-nine points; it is the hundredth which is to be the ground of your self-denial, which must evidence, or rather instance and realize, your faith.’ NEWMAN’S SERMONS"
"Ay, but he is not coming, he cannot get leave,’ said Elizabeth; ‘if he was, I should not mind it so much, but it is only Mrs. Hazleby and the girls, for she has the grace to bring Lucy, on Mamma’s special invitation. But only think of Mrs. Hazleby, scolding and snapping for ever; and Harriet, with her finery and folly and vulgarity. And that at a time which ought to be full of peace, and glorious feelings. Oh! they will spoil all the pleasure!’ ‘All?’ said Helen. ‘All that they can touch, all that depends upon sympathy,’ said Elizabeth."
"‘Mrs. Staunton used to say,’ replied Helen, ‘that people always ought to keep up their connexion with their relations, whether they like them or not. There were some very stupid people, relations of Mr. Staunton’s, near Dykelands, whom Fanny and Jane could not endure, but she used to ask them to dinner very often, and always made a point—’ ‘Well, if I had any disagreeable relations,’ said Elizabeth, ‘I would make a point of cutting them. I do not see why relations have a right to be disagreeable.’"
"‘I do not see how you could,’ said Helen. ‘For instance, would you prevent Mamma from ever seeing the Major, her own brother?’ ‘He cannot be half so well worth seeing since he chose to marry such a horrid wife,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Would you never see Horace again, if he did such a thing?’ said Katherine; ‘I am sure I would not give him up. Would you?’ ‘I could trust Horace, I think,’ said Elizabeth; ‘I will give him fair warning, and I give you and Helen warning, that if you marry odious people, I will have done with you.’"
"Sir Edward Merton was brother to Mr. Woodbourne’s first wife, the mother of Elizabeth, Katherine, and Helen;"
"‘Yes, Mamma,’ replied Anne; ‘I am rather surprised to hear that they are to be there. I should not think that a vulgar-minded Scotchwoman, such as Lizzie describes Mrs. Hazleby, would take much delight in a Consecration; but I suppose Uncle Woodbourne could not well avoid asking them on such an occasion, I believe she is rather touchy.’ ‘You must take care what you say to Lizzie about the Hazlebys,’ said Lady Merton; ‘a very little might make it appear that we wished to set her against her step-mother’s relations."
"‘I should fancy,’ said Lady Merton, ‘that Mrs. Woodbourne’s horror of her was almost equal to Lizzie’s.’"
"‘Kind gentle Aunt Mildred,’ said Anne, ‘do you think she ever had a horror of anyone?’ ‘It is certainly rather a strong word,’ said Lady Merton, ‘but you will allow me to say that she has a great dread of her; I think Mrs. Hazleby scolds and frightens her.’"
"Helen is very unlike the others in everything,’ said Anne. ‘Helen will be the handsomest as far as regularity of features goes,’ said Lady Merton. ‘Do you think so?’ said Anne. ‘Certainly,’ said Lady Merton; ‘her features are less prominent, and her colour has not that fixed hectic look that both the others have, especially Lizzie.’ ‘But she wants brightness and animation,’ said Anne, ‘and she so often looks dismal and fretful, that I cannot fancy admiring her.’ ‘There has never been much sympathy between you and Helen,’ said Lady Merton, smiling. ‘No,’ said Anne, ‘I never felt as if I knew or liked her. I believe Rupert and I were very unkind to her in our younger days; but, oh! she was the most tiresome whining child I ever knew.’"
The Woodbournes are getting ready for the new church. The father is a pastor and has three girl from his first marriage, Elizabeth, Katherine and Helen and he remarried after his wife's death. Lizzie is outspoken but not ill behaved and her best friend is her cousin, Anne Merton. Lord and Lady Merton have been helping with the church. They have a son named Rupert who teased Helen for whinning years ago and it has been awhile since the Mertons have seen Helen. The present Mrs. Woodbourne is kind but did not have a strong enough hand to help Helen. The Mertons and Mrs. Woodbourne's brother's family, the Hazlebys. Lizzie thinks her aunt Hazleby is vulgar, I wonder if uncouth is better word.
"Dorothea, the eldest, a quiet and considerate little maiden of seven years old, carried off Winifred and Edward to their own domains in the nursery. But as for Harriet, the eldest, and her mother’s darling, you will soon be sensible of some of her charms. I only hope she will not teaze the children into naughtiness, as she did last year. I do not
know what would be done if Horace was at home. One day he had a regular battle with her. It began of course in fun on both sides, but he soon grew angry, and at last tore her frock and trod pretty hard on her foot. I could not be sorry for her, she deserved it so completely; but then poor Horace had to be punished. And another time, she shut Dora up in a dark room, and really it did the poor little girl a great deal of harm; she could not sleep quietly for three nights after. Dora is old enough to take care of herself now; and Edward is quieter than Horace, which is a great comfort; but, oh! I wish the Hazlebys were forty miles off!’
Story in short- The Woodbournes are celebrating the new church with extended family and the interplay with the family members.
"This novel was published in 1844 and features as its theme a topic that must have been dear to the heart of Yonge, who was a devout Anglican: the consecration of a new church; in this case in the fictional town of Abbeychurch St Mary’s. A quotation from the sermons of Cardinal John Henry Newman, friend of the Oxford movement (a high church theological group with which Yonge was closely acquainted) prefaces the book, and is an interesting reflection of the author’s own preoccupations. On its publication the Cambridge Chronicle of 10 August 1844 (apart from attributing the novel to the wrong author) stated that it was a story aimed at the younger reader, but it is more accurate to describe it as light reading for any age group."
"The story straddles the consecration of the new church of St Austin’s in Abbeychurch St Mary’s. The town is a place of contrasts — the gentility of the old local society, and the new trades and suburbs of mid Victorian England — in this case, an influx of “new money” retiring into the area to live in the newly constructed villas. As urbanised industrial and residential areas developed in the English provinces, the Anglican church found itself ill-equipped to cater for the growing populations and did not have enough churches"
"for many urban areas, so the building of a new church would have been a theme familiar to many readers in the mid nineteenth century — as Yonge puts it, “a deficiency in church accommodation was soon felt”. Closer to home, no doubt Yonge’s father’s involvement in the building or rebuilding of three churches had an impact on her choice of subject for this novel."
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert ❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
"In addition, Lizzie, a central character and one of the daughters of the local vicar, also personifies contemporary contrasts; although she has impeccable credentials socially, she also seems not to fit them, being adventurous, lively and rather impatient of the restrictions of her life — she is “the merriest of the merry party”. Lizzie is also passionate about romantic tales of chivalry, to the point where she, her easy-going friend Anne and a family acquaintance, Harriet, make an ill-advised decision to go to a lecture on chivalry at the newly built Mechanic’s Institute (a form of adult education venue for working people) in the town, despite being warned by her sister Helen: “Do you not know... that Socialists often hold"
"forth at Mechanic’s Institutes?” to which Lizzie retorts that that sort of thing happened more in the North, not where they lived, and not to worry as they would not turn into Chartists anyway. To the dismay of the family and their circle of acquaintance, the visit by the vicar’s daughter to the Institute is gleefully reported in the local press, a severe lesson to the girls not to transgress social boundaries. The mistake is compounded when it transpires that Fido the dog, who should have been in their care, was accidentally"
"drowned, whilst the girls were in the Institute. After the event, Lizzie finds out that her father was vehemently opposed to the arrival of the Institute in the town, and had declared he never wanted his daughters to go near the place. How will he react to news of Lizzie’s actions? A novel with a diverse array of characters, Abbeychurch offers a spectrum of manners, character, generation and social attitudes, but the real interest in the story is the young women — gentle, charming observational vignettes of well-born Victorian females. In that sense, the plot, such as it is, is secondary to its appeal as a character study of the young woman of the day. Despite the deep involvement Yonge had with her faith and her church, the consecration is not described in any detail, a deliberate omission by her so as not to disrespect the sanctity of the process."
"‘Never think yourself safe because you do your duty in ninety-nine points; it is the hundredth which is to be the ground of your self-denial, which must evidence, or rather instance and realize, your faith.’ NEWMAN’S SERMONS"
"Ay, but he is not coming, he cannot get leave,’ said Elizabeth; ‘if he was, I should not mind it so much, but it is only Mrs. Hazleby and the girls, for she has the grace to bring Lucy, on Mamma’s special invitation. But only think of Mrs. Hazleby, scolding and snapping for ever; and Harriet, with her finery and folly and vulgarity. And that at a time which ought to be full of peace, and glorious feelings. Oh! they will spoil all the pleasure!’ ‘All?’ said Helen. ‘All that they can touch, all that depends upon sympathy,’ said Elizabeth."
"‘Mrs. Staunton used to say,’ replied Helen, ‘that people always ought to keep up their connexion with their relations, whether they like them or not. There were some very stupid people, relations of Mr. Staunton’s, near Dykelands, whom Fanny and Jane could not endure, but she used to ask them to dinner very often, and always made a point—’ ‘Well, if I had any disagreeable relations,’ said Elizabeth, ‘I would make a point of cutting them. I do not see why relations have a right to be disagreeable.’"
"‘I do not see how you could,’ said Helen. ‘For instance, would you prevent Mamma from ever seeing the Major, her own brother?’ ‘He cannot be half so well worth seeing since he chose to marry such a horrid wife,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Would you never see Horace again, if he did such a thing?’ said Katherine; ‘I am sure I would not give him up. Would you?’ ‘I could trust Horace, I think,’ said Elizabeth; ‘I will give him fair warning, and I give you and Helen warning, that if you marry odious people, I will have done with you.’"
"Sir Edward Merton was brother to Mr. Woodbourne’s first wife, the mother of Elizabeth, Katherine, and Helen;"
"‘Yes, Mamma,’ replied Anne; ‘I am rather surprised to hear that they are to be there. I should not think that a vulgar-minded Scotchwoman, such as Lizzie describes Mrs. Hazleby, would take much delight in a Consecration; but I suppose Uncle Woodbourne could not well avoid asking them on such an occasion, I believe she is rather touchy.’ ‘You must take care what you say to Lizzie about the Hazlebys,’ said Lady Merton; ‘a very little might make it appear that we wished to set her against her step-mother’s relations."
"‘I should fancy,’ said Lady Merton, ‘that Mrs. Woodbourne’s horror of her was almost equal to Lizzie’s.’"
"‘Kind gentle Aunt Mildred,’ said Anne, ‘do you think she ever had a horror of anyone?’ ‘It is certainly rather a strong word,’ said Lady Merton, ‘but you will allow me to say that she has a great dread of her; I think Mrs. Hazleby scolds and frightens her.’"
"Helen is very unlike the others in everything,’ said Anne. ‘Helen will be the handsomest as far as regularity of features goes,’ said Lady Merton. ‘Do you think so?’ said Anne. ‘Certainly,’ said Lady Merton; ‘her features are less prominent, and her colour has not that fixed hectic look that both the others have, especially Lizzie.’ ‘But she wants brightness and animation,’ said Anne, ‘and she so often looks dismal and fretful, that I cannot fancy admiring her.’ ‘There has never been much sympathy between you and Helen,’ said Lady Merton, smiling. ‘No,’ said Anne, ‘I never felt as if I knew or liked her. I believe Rupert and I were very unkind to her in our younger days; but, oh! she was the most tiresome whining child I ever knew.’"
The Woodbournes are getting ready for the new church. The father is a pastor and has three girl from his first marriage, Elizabeth, Katherine and Helen and he remarried after his wife's death. Lizzie is outspoken but not ill behaved and her best friend is her cousin, Anne Merton. Lord and Lady Merton have been helping with the church. They have a son named Rupert who teased Helen for whinning years ago and it has been awhile since the Mertons have seen Helen. The present Mrs. Woodbourne is kind but did not have a strong enough hand to help Helen. The Mertons and Mrs. Woodbourne's brother's family, the Hazlebys. Lizzie thinks her aunt Hazleby is vulgar, I wonder if uncouth is better word.
"Dorothea, the eldest, a quiet and considerate little maiden of seven years old, carried off Winifred and Edward to their own domains in the nursery. But as for Harriet, the eldest, and her mother’s darling, you will soon be sensible of some of her charms. I only hope she will not teaze the children into naughtiness, as she did last year. I do not
know what would be done if Horace was at home. One day he had a regular battle with her. It began of course in fun on both sides, but he soon grew angry, and at last tore her frock and trod pretty hard on her foot. I could not be sorry for her, she deserved it so completely; but then poor Horace had to be punished. And another time, she shut Dora up in a dark room, and really it did the poor little girl a great deal of harm; she could not sleep quietly for three nights after. Dora is old enough to take care of herself now; and Edward is quieter than Horace, which is a great comfort; but, oh! I wish the Hazlebys were forty miles off!’
October 14, 2022
I have read this particular Yonge like three times now and every time it has read differently to me -- the first time I was doing my degree in English Lit and diving deep into minor Victorians and being horrified by how judgemental Yonge was towards working class men and misbehaving children, and then the second time I read it while taking care of a baby and remember nothing but a warm fog of comfortable familiarity, but this time, to my surprise and pleasure, I ended up loving it all the way through.
So what's it all about? First, it's Yonge's very first novel, from 1844, and this time around I discovered that in the 1872 reprint edition she regretted some of the choices she made here, specifically that "it would have been wiser in the clergyman to have directed rather than obstructed the so-called 'march of intellect'" which I read as her backing off on her 'working class men shouldn't be educated' stance, although possibly she meant something else entirely. The center of the book is a family of three sisters, one of whom is smart and sharp-tongued and impatient (Lizzie), one of whom is self-centred and shallow (Katherine), and one of whom is lazy and insecure (Helen) -- they bounce off of each other, and off of their cousins Anne and Rupert, and off of their undesired guests Harriet and Lucy, plus there are a lot of adult characters for them to interact with as well. There's the consecration of a new church for a plot point to hang everything around, but really the book is just conversations between various sets of characters in which they talk about what kind of people they are, and what kind of people they want to be, and in the process demonstrate all their flaws and virtues and occasionally learn from each other, all the while making tons of literary and historical allusions which would probably be lost on any modern reader who didn't happen to have read widely in popular fiction & histories of the preceding century. (I knew some of them, but most of them I had to look up.)
None of that sounds like a 4 star book, does it? But I found all the discussion about how to live together in a family really interesting and surprisingly relevant to my life -- different children behave and develop differently, one person needs encouragement where another needs more structure, people contribute in different ways but it's important that everyone contribute -- and intelligence is good, but it isn't the only good, being judgemental or hateful to people who can't keep up with cleverness is destructive of family harmony. I didn't agree with all of it, of course, but Yonge was writing her thoughts about things that I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and for 1842 some of the values were surprisingly in line with my own, even though I am not a conservative High-Church Anglican! Even the part about the girls sneaking off to go to a socialist meeting made sense to me this time -- as soon as I pictured it as a far-right rally I understood the family's concerns both about the impact on the girls and on their own reputation in the community. I still think Yonge's classism and anti-labour anti-Socialism views are gross, don't get me wrong, but this was the first time I actually emotionally understood the plot point at all.
One of the things that stood out to me is Anne talking about how she loves embroidering because the things happening around her as she does the work make their way into it, so that when she looks back on her finished piece she remembers 'when I did that part X was playing Y on the piano' or 'I did this during that wonderful conversation about...' -- which is something I have experienced myself, albeit with ipad colouring apps, not with embroidery. It has stuck with me, though, as a bit of human connection reaching across time; Yonge must have either experienced it herself or known someone who did, and here I am 180 years later experiencing the same thing.
So what's it all about? First, it's Yonge's very first novel, from 1844, and this time around I discovered that in the 1872 reprint edition she regretted some of the choices she made here, specifically that "it would have been wiser in the clergyman to have directed rather than obstructed the so-called 'march of intellect'" which I read as her backing off on her 'working class men shouldn't be educated' stance, although possibly she meant something else entirely. The center of the book is a family of three sisters, one of whom is smart and sharp-tongued and impatient (Lizzie), one of whom is self-centred and shallow (Katherine), and one of whom is lazy and insecure (Helen) -- they bounce off of each other, and off of their cousins Anne and Rupert, and off of their undesired guests Harriet and Lucy, plus there are a lot of adult characters for them to interact with as well. There's the consecration of a new church for a plot point to hang everything around, but really the book is just conversations between various sets of characters in which they talk about what kind of people they are, and what kind of people they want to be, and in the process demonstrate all their flaws and virtues and occasionally learn from each other, all the while making tons of literary and historical allusions which would probably be lost on any modern reader who didn't happen to have read widely in popular fiction & histories of the preceding century. (I knew some of them, but most of them I had to look up.)
None of that sounds like a 4 star book, does it? But I found all the discussion about how to live together in a family really interesting and surprisingly relevant to my life -- different children behave and develop differently, one person needs encouragement where another needs more structure, people contribute in different ways but it's important that everyone contribute -- and intelligence is good, but it isn't the only good, being judgemental or hateful to people who can't keep up with cleverness is destructive of family harmony. I didn't agree with all of it, of course, but Yonge was writing her thoughts about things that I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and for 1842 some of the values were surprisingly in line with my own, even though I am not a conservative High-Church Anglican! Even the part about the girls sneaking off to go to a socialist meeting made sense to me this time -- as soon as I pictured it as a far-right rally I understood the family's concerns both about the impact on the girls and on their own reputation in the community. I still think Yonge's classism and anti-labour anti-Socialism views are gross, don't get me wrong, but this was the first time I actually emotionally understood the plot point at all.
One of the things that stood out to me is Anne talking about how she loves embroidering because the things happening around her as she does the work make their way into it, so that when she looks back on her finished piece she remembers 'when I did that part X was playing Y on the piano' or 'I did this during that wonderful conversation about...' -- which is something I have experienced myself, albeit with ipad colouring apps, not with embroidery. It has stuck with me, though, as a bit of human connection reaching across time; Yonge must have either experienced it herself or known someone who did, and here I am 180 years later experiencing the same thing.
January 15, 2024
Elizabeth Woodbourne and her sisters are the daughters of the Rector of Abbeychurch. As a new church in the town about to be consecrated, their house is full of family visitors. With six teenage girls in the house, the scene is set for a week of pleasure - and of embarrassment, little dramas and emotional upsets…
This was Charlotte Yonge’s first published novel, and when it was republished a few decades later, she was the first to draw attention to some of its flaws: the Rector’s rigorous opposition to the Mechanics Institute, the inclusion of long pages of dialogue about historical favourites (surely replicating Yonge’s actual conversations), and as she says, the ‘tyrannical aversion to vulgarity’ which conflated moral and social superiority and could allow no good in someone who was Not Quite Our Class Dear. However these faults aside, even at 21 Yonge’s ability to create characters who leap off the page as believable and interesting people to spend time with shines through. The interactions of Elizabeth, energetic, clever and impatient, and her younger sister Helen, who has been staying away from the family and feels the odd one out, would fit right in a Gwendoline Courtney, Jacqueline Wilson or Young Adult book today. Elizabeth’s working herself up about the terrible sin of visiting the Mechanics Institute might seem over the top today, but anyone who has ever been a teenager can relate to Helen’s bad temper on a walk, cousin Anne’s desperate attempts to stop her brother crossing the line of teasing, and Lizzie and Harriet’s different fears about provoking real parental wrath versus their normal ability to manage said parents.
With its setting near Winchester, its heroine called Elizabeth, and its mixture of wit and moral thinking about how to be true to oneself in mixed company, there is something Austenian about this novel although it is not in any way a pastiche. Maybe the Woodbournes are what Edmund Bertram’s rectorial family would have been. As with Henrietta’s Wish, there is a background of the impact of the railways on rural England, turning a sleepy village into a growing town and introducing new ideas that threaten the historical past that clearly attracted Yonge. Overall, as an apprentice work, this is an enjoyable read. One wonders what happened to the characters, whom we never meet again. Surely one of the girls must marry cousin Rupert? But will it be Lizzie, Helen, shallow-minded Kate, their composed little sister Dora, or will shrinking violet Lucy steal a march on brash Harriet?
This was Charlotte Yonge’s first published novel, and when it was republished a few decades later, she was the first to draw attention to some of its flaws: the Rector’s rigorous opposition to the Mechanics Institute, the inclusion of long pages of dialogue about historical favourites (surely replicating Yonge’s actual conversations), and as she says, the ‘tyrannical aversion to vulgarity’ which conflated moral and social superiority and could allow no good in someone who was Not Quite Our Class Dear. However these faults aside, even at 21 Yonge’s ability to create characters who leap off the page as believable and interesting people to spend time with shines through. The interactions of Elizabeth, energetic, clever and impatient, and her younger sister Helen, who has been staying away from the family and feels the odd one out, would fit right in a Gwendoline Courtney, Jacqueline Wilson or Young Adult book today. Elizabeth’s working herself up about the terrible sin of visiting the Mechanics Institute might seem over the top today, but anyone who has ever been a teenager can relate to Helen’s bad temper on a walk, cousin Anne’s desperate attempts to stop her brother crossing the line of teasing, and Lizzie and Harriet’s different fears about provoking real parental wrath versus their normal ability to manage said parents.
With its setting near Winchester, its heroine called Elizabeth, and its mixture of wit and moral thinking about how to be true to oneself in mixed company, there is something Austenian about this novel although it is not in any way a pastiche. Maybe the Woodbournes are what Edmund Bertram’s rectorial family would have been. As with Henrietta’s Wish, there is a background of the impact of the railways on rural England, turning a sleepy village into a growing town and introducing new ideas that threaten the historical past that clearly attracted Yonge. Overall, as an apprentice work, this is an enjoyable read. One wonders what happened to the characters, whom we never meet again. Surely one of the girls must marry cousin Rupert? But will it be Lizzie, Helen, shallow-minded Kate, their composed little sister Dora, or will shrinking violet Lucy steal a march on brash Harriet?
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