GHL to Edward Dowden, London, [February 1877]
Title
GHL to Edward Dowden, London, [February 1877]
Title
GHL to Edward Dowden, London, [February 1877]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Edward Dowden
Date(s)
- 1877-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Edward Dowden, London, [February 1877]
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 328 (July-August 1914), item 1956.
She has been pained to find many dear friends and some of her most devoted readers, utterly dead to all the Jewish part. The phrase uttered to one lady which was reported to me, [I never did like the Jews and I never shall,] expresses pretty plainly the general state of feeling. That Jews are human beings, and as such are of some interest, and that the race has played a great part in the world, have no avail against this prejudice. . . .
Had not learned Jews and impassioned Jewesses written to her from Germany, Poland, France, as well as England and America, assuring her that she had really touched and set vibrating a deep chord, Mrs. Lewes would have been very despondent; for it is in vain that she abstains from reading what is written about her; there is always enough reaching her by indirect routes to tell her how her purpose has been misunderstood or has met with indifference.
The deep insight, and that upon which all might is founded, the sympathy, expressed in your article has therefore been peculiarly grateful both to her and me. . . . Caring supremely as I do for the criticism which is culture, and detesting the knowingness and cuckoo iteration which passes for criticism, I rejoiced in your article as a type of the way in which alone great writers should be treated. . . . We only see what interests us, and we have only insight in proportion to our sympathy. Now both these fundamental principles are forgotten by critics who ask, [Who can be expected to feel interest in the Jews?] -- [Who can believe in such a prig as Deronda?] -- [Mordecai is a Shadow,] etc. . . . Your defence of the stupidity about scientific pedantry was especially called for . . . because the reproach is singularly unjust as applied to George Eliot, whose sins certainly do not contain Parade among them. . . . Those who know the Greek poets recognize in a thousand subtle indications her familiarity with them, 601 but where -- except in the [Clerical Scenes] -- in a passage intended as a blind 602 -- are the Greeks? And so of the rest. . . .
When you were writing about Shakespeare so finely, you had the whole world to back you, and the sympathetic attitude was de rigueur.
Text: Maggs Brothers Catalogue 328 (July-August 1914), item 1956.
She has been pained to find many dear friends and some of her most devoted readers, utterly dead to all the Jewish part. The phrase uttered to one lady which was reported to me, [I never did like the Jews and I never shall,] expresses pretty plainly the general state of feeling. That Jews are human beings, and as such are of some interest, and that the race has played a great part in the world, have no avail against this prejudice. . . .
Had not learned Jews and impassioned Jewesses written to her from Germany, Poland, France, as well as England and America, assuring her that she had really touched and set vibrating a deep chord, Mrs. Lewes would have been very despondent; for it is in vain that she abstains from reading what is written about her; there is always enough reaching her by indirect routes to tell her how her purpose has been misunderstood or has met with indifference.
The deep insight, and that upon which all might is founded, the sympathy, expressed in your article has therefore been peculiarly grateful both to her and me. . . . Caring supremely as I do for the criticism which is culture, and detesting the knowingness and cuckoo iteration which passes for criticism, I rejoiced in your article as a type of the way in which alone great writers should be treated. . . . We only see what interests us, and we have only insight in proportion to our sympathy. Now both these fundamental principles are forgotten by critics who ask, [Who can be expected to feel interest in the Jews?] -- [Who can believe in such a prig as Deronda?] -- [Mordecai is a Shadow,] etc. . . . Your defence of the stupidity about scientific pedantry was especially called for . . . because the reproach is singularly unjust as applied to George Eliot, whose sins certainly do not contain Parade among them. . . . Those who know the Greek poets recognize in a thousand subtle indications her familiarity with them, 601 but where -- except in the [Clerical Scenes] -- in a passage intended as a blind 602 -- are the Greeks? And so of the rest. . . .
When you were writing about Shakespeare so finely, you had the whole world to back you, and the sympathetic attitude was de rigueur.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Edward Dowden, London, [February 1877], 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/94496