GE to William Blackwood, London, 4 November 1879
Title
GE to William Blackwood, London, 4 November 1879
Title
GE to William Blackwood, London, 4 November 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
William Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1879-11-04
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to William Blackwood, London, 4 November 1879
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, 21 North Bank | November 4. 79.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
I have delayed writing to you again because, intensely occupied as you must be, I was unwilling to make one more correspondent whose letter you would have to open.
Thank you for sending me the [Scotsman.] The article it gave on my dear lost Friend does credit to the management of the paper. The articles in the [Times] and [Athenaeum] were also good. I am continually thinking of the blank that is made for you both in your personal and public life, and of the anxiety you must be undergoing as to the way in which your Uncle's important work can be carried on, your own time having been quite sufficiently absorbed hitherto, I imagine, by your own department of duties.
I write now about the question of the [Sayings], because I think that by doing so I may save you the trouble of writing a letter. The plan of a supplementary volume seems to me objectionable and not likely to answer. I have been examining the actual volume, and it seems to be capable of sufficient compression by substituting a thinner paper -- still fine and tinted, but as thin, for example, as that of Matthew Arnold's Selections from Wordsworth, which form quite a small volume though of only 100 fewer pages than the [Sayings]. 341 And the addition of Sayings from Daniel Deronda and Theophrastus Such ought not to be considerable. Pray prune any too great exuberance in this supplementary selection. With this alteration of paper, the new volume would probably not be so thick and heavy even as the present edition. 342
If you concur in my proposition do not think it necessary to write specially in order to tell me so. I want not to occasion you trouble but would save you from it.
Yours always sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, 21 North Bank | November 4. 79.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
I have delayed writing to you again because, intensely occupied as you must be, I was unwilling to make one more correspondent whose letter you would have to open.
Thank you for sending me the [Scotsman.] The article it gave on my dear lost Friend does credit to the management of the paper. The articles in the [Times] and [Athenaeum] were also good. I am continually thinking of the blank that is made for you both in your personal and public life, and of the anxiety you must be undergoing as to the way in which your Uncle's important work can be carried on, your own time having been quite sufficiently absorbed hitherto, I imagine, by your own department of duties.
I write now about the question of the [Sayings], because I think that by doing so I may save you the trouble of writing a letter. The plan of a supplementary volume seems to me objectionable and not likely to answer. I have been examining the actual volume, and it seems to be capable of sufficient compression by substituting a thinner paper -- still fine and tinted, but as thin, for example, as that of Matthew Arnold's Selections from Wordsworth, which form quite a small volume though of only 100 fewer pages than the [Sayings]. 341 And the addition of Sayings from Daniel Deronda and Theophrastus Such ought not to be considerable. Pray prune any too great exuberance in this supplementary selection. With this alteration of paper, the new volume would probably not be so thick and heavy even as the present edition. 342
If you concur in my proposition do not think it necessary to write specially in order to tell me so. I want not to occasion you trouble but would save you from it.
Yours always sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to William Blackwood, London, 4 November 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/94203