The Heir of Redclyffe

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Soldiers fighting in the Crimean War lapped up this story and it also influenced the young William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who read it at Oxford. The Heir of Redclyffe, published in 1853, reflects the mid-Victorian trend for medievalism and resurgence of High Church Anglicanism, combining gothic melodrama with sharply observed social realism, sprightly dialogue and wry humour. Although Charlotte M Yonge came to be associated mainly with domestic realism, in her long career (1823–1901) she worked across a wide range of genres, writing biographies, histories, children's books, and novels from historical epics to long-running family sagas. In Yonge's bicentenary year, New Generation Thinker Clare Walker-Gore argues that now is the time to rediscover this brilliant and neglected woman writer.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
0:01.5	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:04.0	It's such a wonderful listen.
0:05.6	So nice.
0:06.5	There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.
0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:34.6	Hello, I'm Claire Walker Gore, a new generation thinker working with Radio 3 and the Arts and
0:40.6	Humanities Research Council to share my academic research. In this episode of the Arts and Ideas
0:46.4	podcast, I'm presenting a short essay about the air of Redcliffe, a Victorian novel by Charlotte
0:52.1	M. Young that became the surprise bestseller of its day.
0:57.4	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
1:01.2	When the air of Redcliffe first came out in 1853, it didn't seem likely to make much of a stir.
1:08.4	Its author, Charlotte Young, had already published several novels, but they'd enjoyed only modest success. A bit of a bit of a stir. Its author, Charlotte Young, had already published several novels,
	...

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