Coleridge, Christabel Rose

Definition

Christabel Coleridge (1843–1921), granddaughter of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and author of more than 40 books, is today remembered primarily in connection with her mentor and eventual colleague, the Tractarian novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge. Coleridge developed her voice as a writer through her copious contributions to the Barnacle, a manuscript magazine founded in 1863 to provide both outlet and training to a coterie of young middle- and upper-middle-class women who had adopted Yonge as their preceptress. Indeed, Coleridge’s first two published books, Giftie the Changeling (1868) and Lady Betty (1869), both began as Barnacle serials, and Coleridge went on to collaborate with Yonge on three novels, joined and later succeeded her as editor of the girls’ magazine the Monthly Packet, and became her first biographer after the older writer’s death in 1901. Despite their long association and Yonge’s undoubted influence over her, however, Coleridge is more than a mere imitator...