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THE ORIGINAL IDEA FOR THE BOOK came from Miss Yonge's friend, Marianne Dyson. Her biographer, Georgina Battiscombe*, wrote: 'In May 1850 Charlotte went to stay at Dogmersfield, and in the course of the visit Marianne Dyson showed her the notes of an unsuccessful story. The story itself might be a failure but the central theme was a good one and, for what it was worth, she handed it over to Charlotte.
"She told me that there were two characters she wanted to see brought out in a story, namely, the essentially contrite and the self-satisfied. Good men, we agreed, were in most of the books of the day subdued by the memory of some involuntary disaster, generally the killing of someone out shooting, whereas the 'penitence of the saints' was unattempted. The self-satisfied hero was to rate the humble one at still lower than his own estimate, to persecute him, and never be undeceived until he had caused his death. This was the germ of the tale, of which mine was the playwright work of devising action and narrative."
The tale was The Heir of Redclyffe.
*'CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE - The Story of an Uneventful Life', Battiscombe G; Constable and Company, London, 1943.
These are the main characters at the beginning of the book.
- - -SUGGESTION - - -
Why not cut and paste this column of names,
print it out onto a piece of thin card
and use it as a bookmark?
It will save you a lot of searching!
AT HOLLYWELL
Mr & Mrs Edmonstone
-their children-
Charles (19)
Laura (18)
Amabel (17)
Charlotte (10)
AT ST MILDRED'S
Mrs. Margaret Henley
Fanny (deceased)
Philip Morville(19)
AT REDCLYFFE
Sir Guy Morville
Markham (his steward)
AT MOORWORTH
Lord Thorndale
-his son-
James Thorndale (Philip's friend)
IN CORK, IRELAND
Lord and Lady Kilcoran (related to Mr Edmonstone)
-their children-
Lord Maurice de Courcy (in the army with Philip and James)
Lady Eveleen de Courcy
Lady Mabel
Lady Helen
They are by Kate Greenaway from the MacMillan and Co. edition of 1914.
"Guy was pacing the terrace with Laura and Amabel." Chapter 8
"Knife and fingers were busy, and Mary admired the dexterity with which the slit was made in the green bark, well armed with firm red thorns, and the tiny scarlet gem inserted, and bound with cotton and matting." Chapter 12
"I would not even ask you to answer me now, far less to bind yourself, even if - if it were possible." Chapter 13
"She lifted from her cot her little one." Chapter 44
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Click on the button above to go the the Project Gutenberg page about Sintram.
Miss Yonge used this knightly character as a model for Sir Guy Morville. You may download the text of Sintram (and Undine) from the Gutenberg Website, by clicking on the button below. The Author's name is de la Motte Fouque, and Charlotte M Yonge wrote the preface to this edition published in 1896. It contains many beautiful illustrations by Gordon Browne, and Albert Durer's engraving, "The Knight, Death, and Satan", which inspired de la Motte Fouque to write this novel.
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