The Heir of Redclyffe (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Charlotte M. Yonge (Author), Barbara Dennis (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: June 26, 1997

First published in 1853, The Heir of Redclyffe was the most successful novel of the century. Adopted by William Morris and Burne-Jones "as a pattern for life," the protagonist, Guy, was a popular role model of noble virtue, while another character, Amy, was seen as the ideal Victorian wife--redeemer and inspirer, supporter and guide. This novel is a virtual paradigm of the trends of thought which marked the middle decades of the nineteenth-century. It is also deeply marked by the influence of the Oxford Movement, an aspect explored in Barbara Dennis's Introduction to this unique critical edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Dennis is Head of the Department of Victorian Studies at the Department of English, St David's University College, Lampeter, University of Wales. Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901) was born at Otterbourne, near Winchester, where she lived all her life. At the age of 15 she fell under the influence of the Oxford Movement and John Keble was to be her lifelong mentor. Her family consented to allow her to publish only if the earnings were donated to charity, and her father read, criticized and changed at will everything she wrote; after his death, Keble assumed this role. Her work was admired by Tennyson, Kingsley, Rossetti, and William Morris and her books were said to be the favourite reading of young officers in the Crimean War. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 26, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192831321
• ISBN-13: 978-0192831323
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,359,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Heir of Redclyffe" is an original and powerful experi, August 5, 1999

By 

Austin Elliott "godwinwoll" (Cairo, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heir of Redclyffe (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Charlotte Yonge's "The Heir of Redclyffe" is the Victorian bestseller that many critics,along with much of her other work,are attempting to revive.I had trepidations before I read this novel.The only things I knew about Charlotte Yonge before this were - her novels were considered models of virtue and propriety and that Charles Kingsley loved her work.This was not very encouraging.But,after reading "The Heir of Redclyffe" I realized that Yonge was well worth reviving.Charlotte Yonge was probably the Victorian Christian novelist par excellence.Even they who are neither theists or Christians would be impressed with Yonge's intense conviction.Unlike most of her contemporaries her use of religion never feels perfunctory or insincere-she wrote as she believed and practiced."The Heir of Redclyffe" tells the story of a flawed yet saintly young man who is persecuted to death by his jealous and self-righteous cousin.Despite its sentimental theme the book is surprisingly restrained and ultimately moving.Its minute depiction of family life in the 1850's is so evocative -that it is worth reading for that alone.Charlotte Yonge, unfortunately,lacked the literary skill to be ranked with the best of the Victorians,but "The Heir of Redclyffe" is an original and powerful experience.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Experience and Grow From, February 25, 2004

By 

Catherine Decker (Riverside, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Heir of Redclyffe (Paperback)

The Heir of Redclyffe is book that brings both pleasure and pain, but pain that causes the reader to think about the nature of good, evil, and human beings. Like Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, you are fully confronted with the pain of likeable human beings doing immoral, selfish things. The world of the Heir of Redclyffe is realistic in its depiction of complex characters with flaws and weaknesses. You meet a family of two parents, three sisters, a cousin, and a ward (the heir). There are also plenty of fully sketched and realistic minor characters as well. Part of Yonge's power is to make you care about a great many characters and to understand them, their different values, temperments, and personalities. There are five major characters that dominate the novel: Charles, the invalid brother with his clever sense of humor; Laura, the serious older sister; Amy, the sweet and charming younger sister; their cousin, Philip, a brilliant scholar who sacrificed his chance of a fulfilling intellectual life for a sister who betrayed him; and Guy, the heir of money, a title, a terrible education, and a family tradition of a wild temper.

If you haven't read the editorial review above, please don't--it's a spoiler. I don't know if being told the fate of a particular character before I read the book would have changed my experience of the novel, but it certainly would have reduced my surprize and sense of "oh my, god, what next!" The major twists and turns of the plot had for me the same sensational impact I felt when reading Frances Burney's Cecilia or the great Chinese classic, The Dream of the Red Chamber. I realize many of my readers here might be unfamilar with these two works, but the common experience I had in reading all three books was to feel extremely moved and upset by the book. In all three books, characters had become so real to me that I felt intense emotional responses to their pleasures and pains. I think one reason I felt so moved reading these three books was that none of the books involves a world in which you expect extreme horror. For example, in reading The Color Purple, a novel narrated by a young girl raped by her father, the extreme horror and sordid nature of novel's entire world in a way protected me from deep shock and pain. In a tale of a lovely family with a lovely home, fun friends, beautiful gardens, balls, walks, fun after dinner games, discussions of great books and art, the realistic introduction of painful situations moved me greatly.

The book displays a complex web of characters with flaws and assets, much like other Victorian novels such a Eliot's Middlemarch and Martineau's Deerbrook. Like these novels, it also gives you a vivid sense of upper middle class life in Victorian England. I have a Ph.D. in British literature, and I focused on eighteenth-century literature and the novel for my fields of specialization. While reading this Charlotte Yonge novel will certainly not give the social rewards you get for reading more famous authors such as George Eliot or Anthony Trollope, it will give you a wonderful literary experience. I also recommend, although less highly, Yonge's The Clever Woman of the Family and The Daisy Chain. These novels more directly address intellectual, feminist, and religious issues of the Victorian period. For some, particularly fans of Eliot's work, this may make them more highly reguarded. I perfer the focus on more timeless problems of human relationships, pride, and honesty that is found in The Heir of Redclyffe.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engaging novel of life in the nineteenth century, August 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Heir of Redclyffe (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The Heir of Redclyffe is a wonderful novel that vividly depicts life in the nineteenth century. I greatly enjoyed this novel for its superb characterization. I was truly captivated by the main character,Guy Morville. He is a character that the reader genuinely admires and likes for both his nobility and humanity. The writing is excellent and the novel flows more easily than other Victorian works of fiction.