GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 February 1872]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 February 1872]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 February 1872]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1872-02-13
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 February 1872]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Tuesday.
Dear Blackwood
Your letters always welcome and generally cheering could not have come at a time when they were more needed; for partly from health and this damp damnable weather, she is in one of her most depressed moods. Reading [Felix Holt] the other morning made her thin with misery, so deeply impressed was she with the fact that she could never write like that again and that what is now in hand is rinsings of the cask! How battle against such an art of ingeniously self tormenting?
We were pleased to see that so many more of Part II were taken by some of the booksellers, though the considerable falling off in Smith and Mudie's subscriptions looks bad. 460 At three principal Railways -- Charing Cross, Waterloo, and London Bridge -- there were no copies of Part I to be had some weeks ago, so that if Smith hasn't sold all his stock it must be in a great measure his own fault.
I am disappointed at the Times and some other papers holding back -- evidently intending to notice the book when complete -- but then their advertisement (which is all they can give) will be of little use. Drolly enough the editor of the [Academy] 461 wrote to me some time before Part I was out begging for early sheets that his reviewer might not be hurried. I replied that Mrs. Lewes rigorously abstained from all and every thing that could seem like currying favor with the press, and that early sheets couldn't be sent. Whereupon not only has the [Academy] had no notice of either Part -- but has not even mentioned its appearance among literary intelligence -- though if Swinburne has a cold, Rossetti goes to Scotland, or Morris comes to a new edition -- it is duly chronicled! Was not Fanny Kemble's phrase a good one "the press gang"?
Ever yours truly
G. H. L.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Tuesday.
Dear Blackwood
Your letters always welcome and generally cheering could not have come at a time when they were more needed; for partly from health and this damp damnable weather, she is in one of her most depressed moods. Reading [Felix Holt] the other morning made her thin with misery, so deeply impressed was she with the fact that she could never write like that again and that what is now in hand is rinsings of the cask! How battle against such an art of ingeniously self tormenting?
We were pleased to see that so many more of Part II were taken by some of the booksellers, though the considerable falling off in Smith and Mudie's subscriptions looks bad. 460 At three principal Railways -- Charing Cross, Waterloo, and London Bridge -- there were no copies of Part I to be had some weeks ago, so that if Smith hasn't sold all his stock it must be in a great measure his own fault.
I am disappointed at the Times and some other papers holding back -- evidently intending to notice the book when complete -- but then their advertisement (which is all they can give) will be of little use. Drolly enough the editor of the [Academy] 461 wrote to me some time before Part I was out begging for early sheets that his reviewer might not be hurried. I replied that Mrs. Lewes rigorously abstained from all and every thing that could seem like currying favor with the press, and that early sheets couldn't be sent. Whereupon not only has the [Academy] had no notice of either Part -- but has not even mentioned its appearance among literary intelligence -- though if Swinburne has a cold, Rossetti goes to Scotland, or Morris comes to a new edition -- it is duly chronicled! Was not Fanny Kemble's phrase a good one "the press gang"?
Ever yours truly
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 February 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/94619