The Daisy Chain [Paperback]

Charlotte Mary Yonge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

The Daisy Chain “Charlotte Mary Yonge's Victorian bestseller is a domestic story, a novel of female education, and a detailed survey of the controversies and practices of High Church Anglicanism in the 19th century. Its portrayal of the bookish, awkward heroine, Ethel May, paved the way for stories of literary heroines like Jo March and Anne Shirley, and its emphasis on the domestic life of the May family illuminates the Victorian doctrine of separate spheres, the seemingly contradictory gender politics of the Woman Question, and the relationship between religion and the rights of women in the 19th century. Absorbing, moving, and intricately plotted, The Daisy Chain is Yonge's best-known novel; this edition will provide the 21st century reader with a comprehensive education in Victorian culture, not to mention a tremendously satisfying reading experience.” - Kelly Hager, Simmons College. 597 pgs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 597 pages
• Publisher: Beautiful Feet Books (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893103226
• ISBN-13: 978-1893103221
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #732,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate Victorian experience!, April 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Daisy Chain (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)

If you really want to know what life in Victorian England was like, read Charlotte Yonge's novels, just like everyone else used to. The Daisy Chain remained on the "must read" list of every English family well into the 1950's. Clothing, manners, morality, faith, love, death, sorrow, combine with a lot of fun, humor, and an unbelievably large family into one of the best experiences of time-travel for pedestrians ever. Not to mention you get to meet Ethel and Dr. May. Read it. You'll see what I mean.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars louisa may alcott vs. cardinal newman, August 19, 2011

By 

Jessica Nauright - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Daisy Chain (Paperback)

I would like to add another review for this excellent book. I ended up reading it after I randomly bought 'The Trial' in a used book store--that book (also very good) is sort of the sequel to this one, though sort of not. (I mean Charlotte Yonge's book, not Kafka's, haha.) But anyway: 'The Daisy Chain' is fun, especially if you were (even slightly) the kind of romantic lonely kid who daydreamed about life in one of these huge Victorian families. But it is also pretty interesting prose sometimes (I have since been noticing how many citations from Charlotte Yonge there are in the OED), and even better, the characters all come across as idiosyncratic, non-stereotyped, psychologically real people.

It is also intensely didactic, which has prevented me from recommending it to very many people, which is a shame. Because it's a kind of fraught and learned didacticism where people really suffer and have conversations about things like 'scrupulosity.' (George Eliot was a fan.)