Charlotte Mary Yongeโs โThe Young Step-Motherโ - or ฬA Chronicle of Mistakes ฬ - is a historical fiction novel that tells the story of the heroine, Albinia Ferrars, who leaves her happy home to marry Edmund Kendal, a widower fifteen years older than her.
She takes on the role of encouraging wife and stepmother to his three children, however, she quickly finds that other tasks and obstacles come her way.
Her husband has depression, his children are sickly, and those around the family are hostile to change. Albinia tackles all these problems without judgement and begins to believe things have improved, up until her stepchildren begin to fall in love, with disastrous results.
A novel to be enjoyed by fans of Louisa May Alcottโs โLittle Womenโ or Jane Austenโs novels, Yongeโs fiction has a subtle theme of moral teaching. Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823 - 1901) was a prolific and popular English novelist, biographer, editor, historian, essayist, and journalist. She is most famous for her novels which include โHeartseaseโ, โThe Daisy Chainโ, โThe Young Stepmotherโ, and the commercially successful โThe Heir of Redclyffeโ (1853). Yonge was also a founder and editor for forty years of โThe Monthly Packetโ magazine, while her book, โHistory of Christian Namesโ, is considered to be the first serious attempt at recording the subject. Profits from her books were often donated to charitable causes.