John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 22 March 1860
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 22 March 1860
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 22 March 1860
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1860-03-22
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 22 March 1860
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | March 22/60.
My Dear Madam
I inclose proof of the conclusion of the Mill. No words of mine can convey any feeling of the greatness of the success you have achieved. I wish I had time to write you a long letter but I daresay I would only maunder, repeating superlatives upon superlatives of admiration. This book is a greater triumph even than Adam and you may make your mind easy about all Critics. Any mean creature that may venture to carp will only dispute himself.
The greatest lovers of all ending happily must admit that Providence was kind in removing Maggie. She could not have been happy here and she will not be forgotten by others besides Lucy, Phillip and Stephen. I was pretty well prepared for the end but would not have been so knowing had I not been aware that a flood was coming.
I have been occupied nearly all day in the [word illegible] work of trying to reduce a long proof of that famous fellow Speke to something like grammar, and you may conceive the contrast it was to turn from your M.S. to his rugged sentences.
Of course Lewes or you will send a list of presentation copies and all instructions you wish attended to. Also the address to write to you which I suppose will be Poste Restante, Rome.
A very early duty and pleasure with me will be to read the whole book on consecutively. It is perfectly astonishing with how few words you have managed these last chapters and yet how complete they are. Not a word could be spared nor a word added without disadvantage, especially in that inestimable meeting between Lucy and Maggie.
With all my heart congratulating you and wishing you well believe me
ever yours truly,
John Blackwood.
Mrs. M. E. Lewes.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | March 22/60.
My Dear Madam
I inclose proof of the conclusion of the Mill. No words of mine can convey any feeling of the greatness of the success you have achieved. I wish I had time to write you a long letter but I daresay I would only maunder, repeating superlatives upon superlatives of admiration. This book is a greater triumph even than Adam and you may make your mind easy about all Critics. Any mean creature that may venture to carp will only dispute himself.
The greatest lovers of all ending happily must admit that Providence was kind in removing Maggie. She could not have been happy here and she will not be forgotten by others besides Lucy, Phillip and Stephen. I was pretty well prepared for the end but would not have been so knowing had I not been aware that a flood was coming.
I have been occupied nearly all day in the [word illegible] work of trying to reduce a long proof of that famous fellow Speke to something like grammar, and you may conceive the contrast it was to turn from your M.S. to his rugged sentences.
Of course Lewes or you will send a list of presentation copies and all instructions you wish attended to. Also the address to write to you which I suppose will be Poste Restante, Rome.
A very early duty and pleasure with me will be to read the whole book on consecutively. It is perfectly astonishing with how few words you have managed these last chapters and yet how complete they are. Not a word could be spared nor a word added without disadvantage, especially in that inestimable meeting between Lucy and Maggie.
With all my heart congratulating you and wishing you well believe me
ever yours truly,
John Blackwood.
Mrs. M. E. Lewes.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 22 March 1860, 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/95230