Charlotte M Yonge: the plots, the fashions, the judgements

That Stick by Charlotte M Yonge

published 1892

 

 

 

This is a later work from Charlotte M Yonge, and not one of her better-known ones.

I am reading as much as I can of her (no-one can read all of them, she wrote a phenomenal number of works) for a project coming this autumn, involving

The Charlotte M. Yonge Fellowship – Victorian novelist

-      More to follow on that subject.

I have done several posts on her on the blog, she is frequently mentioned, and I did a post on her place in the world:

The Interesting Case of Charlotte M Yonge

 

Most recently I mentioned this book in my post on Dower Houses in literature:

Do you even know what a Dower House is?

-      Because it features one. I said then

 

The oddly-named That Stick has a complicated family, where an outsider unexpectedly inherits a title (similar to the plot of Georgette Heyer’s  Unknown Ajax, which it does not otherwise resemble – except for the lesson that people should not judge the heir before they meet him). The new heir, Frank, is ‘That Stick’ – he is seen as a dull and unexciting fellow, and not up the mark for his new place in life. His earlier life is straight out of the film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ if you can imagine that – he has always looked after others and sacrificed his own plans and dreams and life generally to others. He has long been engaged to an orphan schoolteacher, Mary, as they could never afford to marry. Everyone assumes he will ditch her now, unfit as she is for her new position, but they think wrong, buddy.

…Instead of being terrified at the great garden-party and dinner-party to be held at Coles Kenton, [she] eagerly availed herself of instruction in the details of their management.  She had accepted her fate, and when the two were seen moving about among the people of the party they neither of them looked incongruous with the county aristocracy.

Frank’s worth does shine through, though he never becomes a glittering hero, he always is that stick. It is more that everyone can see there is something to be said for being dull and straightforward.

He is not in great health, and goes off to the Dolomites with his wife and niece, where more problems turn up. There is a  health ‘secret’ and I thought Mary was going to die, - and not just me, niece ‘Constance had begun to grow alarmed, and watched for an opportunity of imploring Mrs. Bury to tell her whether Aunt Mary were really very ill’. but as often with Yonge, it is actually an unexpected (to me) baby – they turn up without warning, and very frequently, in the oeuvre.

Because of the distance from home, some people affect to believe that the baby is an impostor: obtained somehow in the Dolomites to push Herbert (Frank’s nephew) out of the succession. This foolishness will have long-felt consequence.

There is a young woman who will try to ensure a change in the inheritance: somewhat reminiscent of Vera in Agatha Christie’s And Then Were None. She has no real understanding of how wicked this is, but she’ll get her true Yonge come-uppance. (Bad health: ‘She was pretty, with a hectic prettiness of bright eyes and cheeks’. When you’ve read a few, you know what this means)

Meanwhile, there is another weird plotline.

The widow of the previous heir lives in the Dower House -  she is one of those characters that CMY seems to admire, but not that appealing to a modern reader. Her name is Adela. She has lost husband and son, and position.  Her husband (the original heir) was killed in an accident. His sister, Bertha, was engaged to one Captain Alder, a friend to her brother.

The Captain took his future brother-in-law out ‘in his dog-cart with a fiery horse that was sure to run away, …though they begged and prayed him not, and the horse ran away and Mr. Morton was thrown out and killed.’

 ‘On purpose?’

‘Miss Bertha was sure it was, so that she might have all the fortune, and so she told him, and flung the betrothal ring in his face, and he went right off, and never has been heard of since.’ 

‘Well, that is interesting.  Do you think he shot himself?’

 ‘No, he was too mean.  Most likely he married a hideous millionaire.’

Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver greatly admires Charlotte M Yonge, and no wonder: her books are full of engaged (or newly-wed) couples who have broken up in dramatic or secret circumstances. Though this is a particularly choice one: in case it isn’t clear (it is hard to keep all this in your head) Bertha thinks her fiancé killed her brother in order that she would inherit more money and be a wealthier bride for him.

Mind you, Bertha is nicely off anyway, and the New Heir Frank has inherited the rest.

Bertha has stayed single – she has quite a nice unmarried life in London with good works and plenty of money. She has adopted a child with the splendid name ‘a jolly little mortal, in spite of her name—Boadicea Ethelind Davidina Jones.  She is two years old, and quite delicious—the darling of all the house!’

There is going to be endless trouble arising from this too.

As with all her books, That Stick is full of plot and snappy dialogue: I am very much enjoying reading them.

Fashions of the 1890s from – of course – NYPL.

Woman in cloak, England, 1890s - NYPL Digital Collections

Toilettes de ville - NYPL Digital Collections

Women indoors, England, 1890s - NYPL Digital Collections