GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [East Sheen, 28 July 1855]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [East Sheen, 28 July 1855]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [East Sheen, 28 July 1855]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1855-07-28
Place
[East Sheen]
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [East Sheen, 28 July 1855]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: July 28th 1855. Hitherto unpublished.
Saturday.
Dear Sara
You did me good by telling me about that journey to the Crystal Palace. But I know that fine natures take their finest actions as a matter of course and like no fuss made about them. So I shall say no more.
Indeed, I did not in the slightest degree admire the advertisement of the National. 620 It was too transparent a piece of malignity to be clever. Pity a conscientious newspaper critic! Imagine yourself with three or four quarterly reviews and as many magazines to give a judgment on in one week and with a real anxiety in your mind to say nothing unfair. Then after you have deprived yourself of other reading in order to be able to speak of these reviews with adequate knowledge, imagine one editor telling you that you have taken no notice of the best article -- another writing to say that you have praised one quarterly (not his) far too highly and that in his opinion it is very dull -- while a third impales you in an advertisement. And all this after you have avoided saying all the good you think of your friends, and all the evil you think of your non-friends, lest you should be unconsciously biassed by the personal.
Mr. Lewes is totally indifferent to such things but I am thinner skinned and feel for him.
Ever yours
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: July 28th 1855. Hitherto unpublished.
Saturday.
Dear Sara
You did me good by telling me about that journey to the Crystal Palace. But I know that fine natures take their finest actions as a matter of course and like no fuss made about them. So I shall say no more.
Indeed, I did not in the slightest degree admire the advertisement of the National. 620 It was too transparent a piece of malignity to be clever. Pity a conscientious newspaper critic! Imagine yourself with three or four quarterly reviews and as many magazines to give a judgment on in one week and with a real anxiety in your mind to say nothing unfair. Then after you have deprived yourself of other reading in order to be able to speak of these reviews with adequate knowledge, imagine one editor telling you that you have taken no notice of the best article -- another writing to say that you have praised one quarterly (not his) far too highly and that in his opinion it is very dull -- while a third impales you in an advertisement. And all this after you have avoided saying all the good you think of your friends, and all the evil you think of your non-friends, lest you should be unconsciously biassed by the personal.
Mr. Lewes is totally indifferent to such things but I am thinner skinned and feel for him.
Ever yours
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [East Sheen, 28 July 1855], 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/93797