GHL to John Blackwood, London, 22 November 1876
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 22 November 1876
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 22 November 1876
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1876-11-22
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 22 November 1876
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 22nd 76.
My dear Blackwood
We quite agree to your proposal.
Mrs. Lewes would have been glad to know that you were going to issue the 21/ edition of D.D. as she wished to correct three or four errors -- however it is too late now, and we must wait for the 7/6. But I am a little surprised that you did not content yourself with risking 1,000 -- as the types were ready to reprint a second 1,000 if needed -- for I have grim doubts of your getting through with the 2,000£. There seems to be so general a sense of disappointment -- so much deadness to the Jewish element -- that my only hope for a large sale until the public has learned to get over its first disappointment is in the Jewish public and they can only, I fear, be caught by the cheap edition. (Don't allude to the disappointment in any letters to me -- she only knows that Judaism is unpopular not what is said otherwise about the book.) 565 I remember that [Romola] was received with a universal howl of discontent -- and now it is the book most commonly placed at the head of her works -- or at any rate after [Middlemarch.] If Deronda is the book I take it to be we shall see a revival or rather a reversal of opinion. Curiously enough in America it seems to have surpassed [Middlemarch.]
Ever yours
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 22nd 76.
My dear Blackwood
We quite agree to your proposal.
Mrs. Lewes would have been glad to know that you were going to issue the 21/ edition of D.D. as she wished to correct three or four errors -- however it is too late now, and we must wait for the 7/6. But I am a little surprised that you did not content yourself with risking 1,000 -- as the types were ready to reprint a second 1,000 if needed -- for I have grim doubts of your getting through with the 2,000£. There seems to be so general a sense of disappointment -- so much deadness to the Jewish element -- that my only hope for a large sale until the public has learned to get over its first disappointment is in the Jewish public and they can only, I fear, be caught by the cheap edition. (Don't allude to the disappointment in any letters to me -- she only knows that Judaism is unpopular not what is said otherwise about the book.) 565 I remember that [Romola] was received with a universal howl of discontent -- and now it is the book most commonly placed at the head of her works -- or at any rate after [Middlemarch.] If Deronda is the book I take it to be we shall see a revival or rather a reversal of opinion. Curiously enough in America it seems to have surpassed [Middlemarch.]
Ever yours
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, London, 22 November 1876, 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/94689