GE to 'e9mile Mont'e9gut, Wandsworth, [2 July 1859]
Title
GE to 'e9mile Mont'e9gut, Wandsworth, [2 July 1859]
Title
GE to 'e9mile Mont'e9gut, Wandsworth, [2 July 1859]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
'e9mile Mont'e9gut
Date(s)
- 1859-07-02
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to 'e9mile Mont'e9gut, Wandsworth, [2 July 1859]
Text: Revue de litt'e9rature compar'e9e, 5 (1925), 504-505.
I have often said to myself that I would never write a letter of thanks to a critic -- disliking the slightest intrusion of personality into literature. But until I read your article in the recent number of the "Revue des Deux Mondes," 200 my resolution had not been tested by a criticism which at once touched my feeling and gratified my taste. Had your article "Le Roman r'e9aliste en Angleterre" been written about a work with which I had no connection whatever, I should nevertheless have read it with a high relish; for critical writing which shows at once a rare power of discrimination and a still rarer spirit of reverence is not too common. But as the author of "Adam Bede" I have necessarily the private knowledge and the keen sensibility on the subject which cause me to appreciate, in a peculiar way, the justness of your perceptions -- a justness that could never have been attained without the aid of a ready moral sympathy as well as of a subtle intelligence.
On some points, perhaps, my book has not made me altogether intelligible to you; but I do not write to explain what three volumes have failed to explain -- I write simply to thank you. You will not, I feel sure, be too impatient at my obeying an impulse which you yourself have stirred.
People who write finely must not expect to be left in repose; they will be molested with thanks, at least. Believe me, my dear Sir
Yours, with high esteem,
George Eliot.
'e0 Monsieur 'c9mile Mont'e9gut
Text: Revue de litt'e9rature compar'e9e, 5 (1925), 504-505.
I have often said to myself that I would never write a letter of thanks to a critic -- disliking the slightest intrusion of personality into literature. But until I read your article in the recent number of the "Revue des Deux Mondes," 200 my resolution had not been tested by a criticism which at once touched my feeling and gratified my taste. Had your article "Le Roman r'e9aliste en Angleterre" been written about a work with which I had no connection whatever, I should nevertheless have read it with a high relish; for critical writing which shows at once a rare power of discrimination and a still rarer spirit of reverence is not too common. But as the author of "Adam Bede" I have necessarily the private knowledge and the keen sensibility on the subject which cause me to appreciate, in a peculiar way, the justness of your perceptions -- a justness that could never have been attained without the aid of a ready moral sympathy as well as of a subtle intelligence.
On some points, perhaps, my book has not made me altogether intelligible to you; but I do not write to explain what three volumes have failed to explain -- I write simply to thank you. You will not, I feel sure, be too impatient at my obeying an impulse which you yourself have stirred.
People who write finely must not expect to be left in repose; they will be molested with thanks, at least. Believe me, my dear Sir
Yours, with high esteem,
George Eliot.
'e0 Monsieur 'c9mile Mont'e9gut
Signature
George Eliot.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to 'e9mile Mont'e9gut, Wandsworth, [2 July 1859], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91948