GE to John Blackwood, Blackbrook, 19 September 1873
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Blackbrook, 19 September 1873
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Blackbrook, 19 September 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1873-09-19
Place
Blackbrook
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Blackbrook, 19 September 1873
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 212-213.
Blackbrook | Bickley | Kent | September 19. 1873.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
I quite assent to your proposal that there should be a new edition of [Middlemarch] in one volume at 7/6 -- to be prepared at once, but not published too precipitately. Mr. Lewes thinks that such an edition as you describe would be likely to answer, if one could make the public well aware of it. I like your project of an illustration. And the financial arrangements you mention are quite acceptable to me.
For one reason especially I am delighted that the book is going to be reprinted -- namely, that I can see the proof-sheets and make corrections. Pray give orders that the sheets be sent to me. I should like the binding to be of a rich sober colour, with very plain Roman lettering. It might be called a [revised edition.] 846
Thanks for the extract from Mr. Collins's letter. I did not know that there was really a Lowick, in a midland county too. Mr. Collins has my gratitude for feeling some regard towards Mr. Casaubon, in whose life I lived with much sympathy. When I was at Oxford in May, two ladies came up to me after dinner: one said, "How could you let Dorothea marry that Casaubon?" The other: "O I understand her doing that; but why did you let her marry the other fellow, whom I cannot bear?" Thus, two "ardent admirers" wished that the book had been quite different from what it is.
I wonder whether you have abandoned -- as you seemed to agree that it would be wise to do -- the project of bringing out my other books in a cheaper form than the present 3/6 -- which, if it were not for the blemish of the figure illustrations, would be as pretty an edition as could be, and perhaps as cheap as my public requires. Somehow, the cheap books that crowd the stalls are always those which look as if they were issued from Pandemonium. I cannot understand why W. H. Smith does not use his stalls for better works, when they are known to be popular. He seems not to renew his stock of your publications when the first lot has been sold -- at least there is no systematic attention to the supply of the various stalls.
We had a sad check to our enjoyment abroad in Mr. Lewes's attack of deafness, now happily got rid of, and even here, in our quiet and pure air, he is not yet quite flourishing in his general health. One would complain of the weather if it were not sinful to complain on any private account when the harvest is being injured -- a calamity which affects all. With our united kind regards I remain
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 212-213.
Blackbrook | Bickley | Kent | September 19. 1873.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
I quite assent to your proposal that there should be a new edition of [Middlemarch] in one volume at 7/6 -- to be prepared at once, but not published too precipitately. Mr. Lewes thinks that such an edition as you describe would be likely to answer, if one could make the public well aware of it. I like your project of an illustration. And the financial arrangements you mention are quite acceptable to me.
For one reason especially I am delighted that the book is going to be reprinted -- namely, that I can see the proof-sheets and make corrections. Pray give orders that the sheets be sent to me. I should like the binding to be of a rich sober colour, with very plain Roman lettering. It might be called a [revised edition.] 846
Thanks for the extract from Mr. Collins's letter. I did not know that there was really a Lowick, in a midland county too. Mr. Collins has my gratitude for feeling some regard towards Mr. Casaubon, in whose life I lived with much sympathy. When I was at Oxford in May, two ladies came up to me after dinner: one said, "How could you let Dorothea marry that Casaubon?" The other: "O I understand her doing that; but why did you let her marry the other fellow, whom I cannot bear?" Thus, two "ardent admirers" wished that the book had been quite different from what it is.
I wonder whether you have abandoned -- as you seemed to agree that it would be wise to do -- the project of bringing out my other books in a cheaper form than the present 3/6 -- which, if it were not for the blemish of the figure illustrations, would be as pretty an edition as could be, and perhaps as cheap as my public requires. Somehow, the cheap books that crowd the stalls are always those which look as if they were issued from Pandemonium. I cannot understand why W. H. Smith does not use his stalls for better works, when they are known to be popular. He seems not to renew his stock of your publications when the first lot has been sold -- at least there is no systematic attention to the supply of the various stalls.
We had a sad check to our enjoyment abroad in Mr. Lewes's attack of deafness, now happily got rid of, and even here, in our quiet and pure air, he is not yet quite flourishing in his general health. One would complain of the weather if it were not sinful to complain on any private account when the harvest is being injured -- a calamity which affects all. With our united kind regards I remain
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Blackbrook, 19 September 1873, 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/92574