GE to Anthony Trollope, London, 23 October 1863
Title
GE to Anthony Trollope, London, 23 October 1863
Title
GE to Anthony Trollope, London, 23 October 1863
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Anthony Trollope
Date(s)
- 1863-10-23
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Anthony Trollope, London, 23 October 1863
MS: Parrish Collection, Princeton. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Sq. | October 23. 63.
Dear Mr. Trollope
I received your kind letter some days before I received "Rachel Ray." 199 But now I have read the book and can thank you both for your remembrance of me and for the gift. I value both.
Rachel has a formidable rival in "The Small House," which seems to me peculiarly felicitous in its conception, and good for all souls to read. But I am much struck in "Rachel" with the skill with which you have organized thoroughly natural everyday incidents into a strictly related, well-proportioned whole, natty and complete as a nut on its stem. Such construction is among those subtleties of art which can hardly be appreciated except by those who have striven after the same result with conscious failure. Rachel herself is a sweet maidenly figure, and her poor mother's spiritual confusions are excellently observed.
But there is something else I care yet more about, which has impressed me very happily in all those writings of yours that I know -- it is that people are breathing good bracing air in reading them -- it is that they (the books) are filled with belief in goodness without the slightest tinge of maudlin. They are like pleasant public gardens, where people go for amusement and, whether they think of it or not, get health as well.
It seems rather preachy and assuming in me to say that, out of all the other things I might say. But it is what I feel strongly, and I can't help thinking that it is what you care about also, though such things are rather a result of what an author is than of what he intends.
We shall soon be in the agonies of moving, and after that I hope we shall contrive to see you, by planning.
Always yours very truly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Parrish Collection, Princeton. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Sq. | October 23. 63.
Dear Mr. Trollope
I received your kind letter some days before I received "Rachel Ray." 199 But now I have read the book and can thank you both for your remembrance of me and for the gift. I value both.
Rachel has a formidable rival in "The Small House," which seems to me peculiarly felicitous in its conception, and good for all souls to read. But I am much struck in "Rachel" with the skill with which you have organized thoroughly natural everyday incidents into a strictly related, well-proportioned whole, natty and complete as a nut on its stem. Such construction is among those subtleties of art which can hardly be appreciated except by those who have striven after the same result with conscious failure. Rachel herself is a sweet maidenly figure, and her poor mother's spiritual confusions are excellently observed.
But there is something else I care yet more about, which has impressed me very happily in all those writings of yours that I know -- it is that people are breathing good bracing air in reading them -- it is that they (the books) are filled with belief in goodness without the slightest tinge of maudlin. They are like pleasant public gardens, where people go for amusement and, whether they think of it or not, get health as well.
It seems rather preachy and assuming in me to say that, out of all the other things I might say. But it is what I feel strongly, and I can't help thinking that it is what you care about also, though such things are rather a result of what an author is than of what he intends.
We shall soon be in the agonies of moving, and after that I hope we shall contrive to see you, by planning.
Always yours very truly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Anthony Trollope, London, 23 October 1863, 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/92019