GE to John Blackwood, Redhill, 4 August [1872]
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Redhill, 4 August [1872]
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Redhill, 4 August [1872]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1872-08-04
Place
Redhill
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Redhill, 4 August [1872]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 166-167.
Park Road | Red Hill | August 4.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Your letter found me in the midst of a nasty little bilious attack -- a very bad employment of the time which ought to have been given to the last Part of Middlemarch.
I like to think that your journey was a success. But I had felt sure that unless bad health or bad weather overtook you, both Mrs. Blackwood and you must have great happiness in taking that bright lovely daughter abroad and watching her fresh impressions. I imagine her laudable indignation at the crushing of the little lizard! Those little creatures darting about the stones seem part of the happiness of Italian sunshine, as the small birds hopping after the rain seem part of the moist happiness at home.
I shall send Part VII in a few days, 572 as I wish to see it in print that I may be better able to judge of quantities. It will perhaps be desirable to make a few excisions in order to introduce a little further development and leave larger room in the last Part. Since Mr. Lewes tells me that the Spectator considers me the most melancholy of authors, 573 it will perhaps be a welcome assurance to you that there is no unredeemed tragedy in the solution of the story.
Mr. Lewes examines the newspapers before I see them, and cuts out any criticisms which refer to me, so as to save me from these spiritual chills -- though alas, he cannot save me from the physical chills which retard my work more seriously. I had hoped to have the manuscript well out of my hands before we left this place at the end of the month, but the return of my dyspeptic troubles makes me unable to reckon on such a result.
It will be a good plan, I think to quicken the publication towards the end, but we feel convinced that the slow plan of publication has been of immense advantage to the book in deepening the impression it produces. Still, I shudder a little to think what a long book it will be -- not so long as Vanity Fair or Pendennis, however, according to my calculation.
I suppose you sustain your courage under the fire of manuscripts by a game at golf. Looking over a number of the Field the other day I saw that you and Major Lockhart had been winning -- and losing also, with fair vicissitude. 574
How good the articles on French manners and domestic life are in Maga. 575 The spirit in which they are written is excellent. I hope Mr. Simpson is quite well again.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 166-167.
Park Road | Red Hill | August 4.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Your letter found me in the midst of a nasty little bilious attack -- a very bad employment of the time which ought to have been given to the last Part of Middlemarch.
I like to think that your journey was a success. But I had felt sure that unless bad health or bad weather overtook you, both Mrs. Blackwood and you must have great happiness in taking that bright lovely daughter abroad and watching her fresh impressions. I imagine her laudable indignation at the crushing of the little lizard! Those little creatures darting about the stones seem part of the happiness of Italian sunshine, as the small birds hopping after the rain seem part of the moist happiness at home.
I shall send Part VII in a few days, 572 as I wish to see it in print that I may be better able to judge of quantities. It will perhaps be desirable to make a few excisions in order to introduce a little further development and leave larger room in the last Part. Since Mr. Lewes tells me that the Spectator considers me the most melancholy of authors, 573 it will perhaps be a welcome assurance to you that there is no unredeemed tragedy in the solution of the story.
Mr. Lewes examines the newspapers before I see them, and cuts out any criticisms which refer to me, so as to save me from these spiritual chills -- though alas, he cannot save me from the physical chills which retard my work more seriously. I had hoped to have the manuscript well out of my hands before we left this place at the end of the month, but the return of my dyspeptic troubles makes me unable to reckon on such a result.
It will be a good plan, I think to quicken the publication towards the end, but we feel convinced that the slow plan of publication has been of immense advantage to the book in deepening the impression it produces. Still, I shudder a little to think what a long book it will be -- not so long as Vanity Fair or Pendennis, however, according to my calculation.
I suppose you sustain your courage under the fire of manuscripts by a game at golf. Looking over a number of the Field the other day I saw that you and Major Lockhart had been winning -- and losing also, with fair vicissitude. 574
How good the articles on French manners and domestic life are in Maga. 575 The spirit in which they are written is excellent. I hope Mr. Simpson is quite well again.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Redhill, 4 August [1872], 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/92700