John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 31 August 1860
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 31 August 1860
Title
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 31 August 1860
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1860-08-31
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 31 August 1860
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | August 31/60.
My Dear Madam
Your letter communicating the Great Secret is truly refreshing and opens up a famous prospect.
Savonarola and his times is a splendid subject for you, and you have such a power of imparting reality to every thing you write that your Romance will not read like Fiction. I expect that you will return Historical Romance to its ancient popularity.
Your fears about not being able to carry out your ideas do not alarm me. Your doubts are better than other men's certainties, as Lord Kames said of the celebrated Scotch Law Book "Dirletons Doubts." 624 The wealth of thought and power of illustration in the Mill give the idea of inexhaustible stores in your mind.
The Major, I am thankful to say, continues to improve steadily, but he is very feeble yet and time will be required to put him all right again. He was much interested by your letter and rejoices with me in the idea of such a series for the Magazine and also in the prospect of publishing another Story of English Life by you. If I could get away from here just now I would come up to London solely for the pleasure of talking about those two novels with you.
My nephew Willie is going with his brother 625 to Southampton on Tuesday and intends to pay his respects to Lewes and you on Wednesday if you are to be at home. The young soldier is a very tidy specimen of what an officer should be, and I would have sent him to you but he is only to be in London on the Monday. A young fellow starting from the midst of a happy family for uncertain duties is always a sombre business, and it is doubly so when the usual mainspring of the house is reduced to his sofa.
I had an idea that the secret was an Italian story and a hope that you might intend it for the Magazine but I was entirely out as to the date of the story.
Is the English Story to be Town or Country?
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | August 31/60.
My Dear Madam
Your letter communicating the Great Secret is truly refreshing and opens up a famous prospect.
Savonarola and his times is a splendid subject for you, and you have such a power of imparting reality to every thing you write that your Romance will not read like Fiction. I expect that you will return Historical Romance to its ancient popularity.
Your fears about not being able to carry out your ideas do not alarm me. Your doubts are better than other men's certainties, as Lord Kames said of the celebrated Scotch Law Book "Dirletons Doubts." 624 The wealth of thought and power of illustration in the Mill give the idea of inexhaustible stores in your mind.
The Major, I am thankful to say, continues to improve steadily, but he is very feeble yet and time will be required to put him all right again. He was much interested by your letter and rejoices with me in the idea of such a series for the Magazine and also in the prospect of publishing another Story of English Life by you. If I could get away from here just now I would come up to London solely for the pleasure of talking about those two novels with you.
My nephew Willie is going with his brother 625 to Southampton on Tuesday and intends to pay his respects to Lewes and you on Wednesday if you are to be at home. The young soldier is a very tidy specimen of what an officer should be, and I would have sent him to you but he is only to be in London on the Monday. A young fellow starting from the midst of a happy family for uncertain duties is always a sombre business, and it is doubly so when the usual mainspring of the house is reduced to his sofa.
I had an idea that the secret was an Italian story and a hope that you might intend it for the Magazine but I was entirely out as to the date of the story.
Is the English Story to be Town or Country?
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
Mrs. M. E. Lewes.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, Edinburgh, 31 August 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/95274