GE to John Blackwood, Witley, 29 June 1879
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Witley, 29 June 1879
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Witley, 29 June 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1879-06-29
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Witley, 29 June 1879
Text: Cross, III, 369-370.
Thank you for sending me the pretty little book. I am deeply touched by the account of its origin, and I remember well everything you said to me of Mr Brown in old days, when he was still with you. I had only cut a very little way into the volume when a friend came and carried it off, but my eyes had already been arrested by some remarks on the character of Harold Transome, which seemed to me more penetrating and finely felt than almost anything I have read in the way of printed comment on my own writing. When my friend brings back the volume I shall read it reverentially, and most probably with a sense of being usefully admonished. For praise and sympathy arouse much more self-suspicion and sense of shortcoming than all the blame and depreciation of all the Pepins. 285
I am better, and I hope on the way to complete recovery, but I am still at some distance from that goal. Perhaps if the winds would give one some rest from their tormenting importunity, both you and I should get on faster.
I am looking forward to reading the "Recollections of Ekowe" 286 in
[Maga,] which came to me yesterday, with its list of my own doings and misdoings on the cover.
Does not this Zulu war seem to you a horribly bad business?
Text: Cross, III, 369-370.
Thank you for sending me the pretty little book. I am deeply touched by the account of its origin, and I remember well everything you said to me of Mr Brown in old days, when he was still with you. I had only cut a very little way into the volume when a friend came and carried it off, but my eyes had already been arrested by some remarks on the character of Harold Transome, which seemed to me more penetrating and finely felt than almost anything I have read in the way of printed comment on my own writing. When my friend brings back the volume I shall read it reverentially, and most probably with a sense of being usefully admonished. For praise and sympathy arouse much more self-suspicion and sense of shortcoming than all the blame and depreciation of all the Pepins. 285
I am better, and I hope on the way to complete recovery, but I am still at some distance from that goal. Perhaps if the winds would give one some rest from their tormenting importunity, both you and I should get on faster.
I am looking forward to reading the "Recollections of Ekowe" 286 in
[Maga,] which came to me yesterday, with its list of my own doings and misdoings on the cover.
Does not this Zulu war seem to you a horribly bad business?
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Witley, 29 June 1879, 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/92761