GE to Catherine H. Spence, London, 4 September 1876
Title
GE to Catherine H. Spence, London, 4 September 1876
Title
GE to Catherine H. Spence, London, 4 September 1876
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Catherine H. Spence
Date(s)
- 1876-09-04
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Catherine H. Spence, London, 4 September 1876
Text: Melbourne Review, 10 (1885).
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 4, 1876.
Dear Madam
Owing to an absence of some months, it was only the other day that I read your kind letter of the 17th April, and, although I have long been obliged to give up answering the majority of letters addressed to me, I felt much pleased that you had given me an opportunity of answering one from you. For I have always remembered your visit with a regretful feeling that I had probably caused you some pain by a rather unwise effort to give you a reception, which the state of my health at the moment made altogether blundering and infelicitous. 342 The mistake was all on my side, and you were not in the least to blame.
I also remember that your studies have been of a serious kind, such as are likely to render a judgement of fiction and poetry -- or, as the Germans with better classification say, on [Dichtung] in general -- quite other than the superficial haphazard remark of which reviews are usually made. You will all the better understand that I have made it a rule not to read writing about myself. I am exceptionally sensitive, and liable to discouragement, and to read much remark about my doings would have as depressing an effect on me as staring in a mirror -- perhaps I may say -- even of defective glass. But my husband looks at all the numerous articles that are forwarded to me, and kindly keeps them out of my way, only on rare occasions reading me a passage which he thinks will comfort me by its evidence of unusual insight or sympathy. Yesterday he read your article in the Melbourne Review, and said, at the end, [This is an excellently written article, which would do credit to any English periodical,] adding the very uncommon testimony [I shall keep this.] Then he told me of some passages in it which gratified me by that comprehension of my meaning -- that laying of the finger on the right spot, which is more precious than praise; and forthwith he went to lay the Melbourne Review in the drawer he assigns to any writing about me that gives him satisfaction. For he feels on my behalf more than I feel on my own -- at least, in matters of this kind.
If you should come to England again, when I happen to be in town, I hope that you will give me the pleasure of seeing you under happier auspices than those of your former visit. 343
Believe me, dear Madam, yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Melbourne Review, 10 (1885).
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 4, 1876.
Dear Madam
Owing to an absence of some months, it was only the other day that I read your kind letter of the 17th April, and, although I have long been obliged to give up answering the majority of letters addressed to me, I felt much pleased that you had given me an opportunity of answering one from you. For I have always remembered your visit with a regretful feeling that I had probably caused you some pain by a rather unwise effort to give you a reception, which the state of my health at the moment made altogether blundering and infelicitous. 342 The mistake was all on my side, and you were not in the least to blame.
I also remember that your studies have been of a serious kind, such as are likely to render a judgement of fiction and poetry -- or, as the Germans with better classification say, on [Dichtung] in general -- quite other than the superficial haphazard remark of which reviews are usually made. You will all the better understand that I have made it a rule not to read writing about myself. I am exceptionally sensitive, and liable to discouragement, and to read much remark about my doings would have as depressing an effect on me as staring in a mirror -- perhaps I may say -- even of defective glass. But my husband looks at all the numerous articles that are forwarded to me, and kindly keeps them out of my way, only on rare occasions reading me a passage which he thinks will comfort me by its evidence of unusual insight or sympathy. Yesterday he read your article in the Melbourne Review, and said, at the end, [This is an excellently written article, which would do credit to any English periodical,] adding the very uncommon testimony [I shall keep this.] Then he told me of some passages in it which gratified me by that comprehension of my meaning -- that laying of the finger on the right spot, which is more precious than praise; and forthwith he went to lay the Melbourne Review in the drawer he assigns to any writing about me that gives him satisfaction. For he feels on my behalf more than I feel on my own -- at least, in matters of this kind.
If you should come to England again, when I happen to be in town, I hope that you will give me the pleasure of seeing you under happier auspices than those of your former visit. 343
Believe me, dear Madam, yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Catherine H. Spence, London, 4 September 1876, 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/92078