GHL to John Blackwood, Redhill, [13 July 1872]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Redhill, [13 July 1872]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Redhill, [13 July 1872]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1872-07-13
Place
Redhill
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, Redhill, [13 July 1872]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Elversley, Red Hill | Saturday.
My dear Blackwood
Welcome back again to home, Maga, and golf -- I dare say you are glad enough to be again under the shadow of your penates after the excitement and whirl of the last weeks. It is so with us. An [outing] has its highest relish by a reflex from home.
You will rejoice to hear that our retirement from London excitement has been an immense success -- at least as far as Mrs. Lewes is concerned -- and I am much mistaken if Parts VI and VII do not show the benefit. She got stronger at once and is enjoying the complete solitude and hopes to finish her book by September when we shall take a real holiday.
What think you of publishing VII and VIII at monthly intervals so as to have the whole work completed for December? Part VI would then appear in October when people are returning and VII in November and VIII in December. Christmas would thus have the whole world of Middlemarch to enjoy -- if it needed that!
I have not been so well down here -- I came down with troublesome head symptoms and didn't get over for some time. Now I am the worse for a little imprudence having been seduced up to town to dine with the Irish Chancellor and some other interesting people, 560 and having to pay in headaches for my entertainment! It is all the more provoking as I am [bursting] with ideas -- and want to give them birth. The shadow of old Casaubon hangs over me and I fear my "Key to all Psychologies" will have to be left to Dorothea! 561 -- Isn't the Garth Family a gem?
The enclosed letter 562 gave her and me so much pleasure and her so much encouragement that I am tempted to send it you. Main has already seen it. Send it me back -- or rather when you write to her don't forget to enclose it.
Mad. Bodichon wrote to her the other day that Judge Fitzgerald 563 told her at the opening of the Dublin Exhibition he was struck with the attention of the Archbishop 564 to the interior of his hat which at first he took for devout listening to the speeches, but on close examination saw he was reading something, and as this was so intent he was prompted to look also into the hat, and found the Archbishop had Middlemarch there laid open -- what a much better way of listening to [opening speeches]!
Ever yours truly
G. H. L.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Elversley, Red Hill | Saturday.
My dear Blackwood
Welcome back again to home, Maga, and golf -- I dare say you are glad enough to be again under the shadow of your penates after the excitement and whirl of the last weeks. It is so with us. An [outing] has its highest relish by a reflex from home.
You will rejoice to hear that our retirement from London excitement has been an immense success -- at least as far as Mrs. Lewes is concerned -- and I am much mistaken if Parts VI and VII do not show the benefit. She got stronger at once and is enjoying the complete solitude and hopes to finish her book by September when we shall take a real holiday.
What think you of publishing VII and VIII at monthly intervals so as to have the whole work completed for December? Part VI would then appear in October when people are returning and VII in November and VIII in December. Christmas would thus have the whole world of Middlemarch to enjoy -- if it needed that!
I have not been so well down here -- I came down with troublesome head symptoms and didn't get over for some time. Now I am the worse for a little imprudence having been seduced up to town to dine with the Irish Chancellor and some other interesting people, 560 and having to pay in headaches for my entertainment! It is all the more provoking as I am [bursting] with ideas -- and want to give them birth. The shadow of old Casaubon hangs over me and I fear my "Key to all Psychologies" will have to be left to Dorothea! 561 -- Isn't the Garth Family a gem?
The enclosed letter 562 gave her and me so much pleasure and her so much encouragement that I am tempted to send it you. Main has already seen it. Send it me back -- or rather when you write to her don't forget to enclose it.
Mad. Bodichon wrote to her the other day that Judge Fitzgerald 563 told her at the opening of the Dublin Exhibition he was struck with the attention of the Archbishop 564 to the interior of his hat which at first he took for devout listening to the speeches, but on close examination saw he was reading something, and as this was so intent he was prompted to look also into the hat, and found the Archbishop had Middlemarch there laid open -- what a much better way of listening to [opening speeches]!
Ever yours truly
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, Redhill, [13 July 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/94713