John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 1 March 1859
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 1 March 1859
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 1 March 1859
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1859-03-01
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 1 March 1859
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | March 1/59.
My Dear Lewes
I intend to have an article on Adam next month so suspend the Austen 57 and ponder well.
My proposed reviewer 58 says in a note I had the other day, "My notion of reviewing a Novel is, that you should never spoil the interest for those who have not read it by giving a resum'e9 of the plot. That is unfair to author and public."
The reviews in the papers, although not good in themselves, will do good to the book. I expect to be able to report soon that the Bedesman is fairly off and coming in a winner.
Damned presumptuous ass was my mental comment on the reviewer in the Saturday. The idea of G.E. sitting at the feet of Kingsley riled me particularly. 59 Why there is more sense in George Eliot's little finger than in Kingsley's whole carcase. With all his blustering, would-be manliness, I do not look upon Kingsley as a man of power and substance at all. I hope he is not a friend of yours as I have spoken so freely of him. It is a great pity there is not some one to tone and direct the feeling in the Saturday as there is much good writing in it, so much superior to the deplorable stuff in the Athenaeum. The Athenaeum has the best of it in this case however. 60 The Saturday Review has the inconceivable folly to speak of men like Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray, etc. in a tone of happy superiority that would not be justifiable to the humblest literary aspirant.
I return Mrs. Carlyle's pleasant letter. I wrote her a line with G.E.'s message. Tell said G.E. that I have suppressed the extracts. I agree with his feeling about such comments, but they are not intended for the author's perusal but for that of the fools to whom he alludes.
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
G. H. Lewes Esq.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Edinburgh | March 1/59.
My Dear Lewes
I intend to have an article on Adam next month so suspend the Austen 57 and ponder well.
My proposed reviewer 58 says in a note I had the other day, "My notion of reviewing a Novel is, that you should never spoil the interest for those who have not read it by giving a resum'e9 of the plot. That is unfair to author and public."
The reviews in the papers, although not good in themselves, will do good to the book. I expect to be able to report soon that the Bedesman is fairly off and coming in a winner.
Damned presumptuous ass was my mental comment on the reviewer in the Saturday. The idea of G.E. sitting at the feet of Kingsley riled me particularly. 59 Why there is more sense in George Eliot's little finger than in Kingsley's whole carcase. With all his blustering, would-be manliness, I do not look upon Kingsley as a man of power and substance at all. I hope he is not a friend of yours as I have spoken so freely of him. It is a great pity there is not some one to tone and direct the feeling in the Saturday as there is much good writing in it, so much superior to the deplorable stuff in the Athenaeum. The Athenaeum has the best of it in this case however. 60 The Saturday Review has the inconceivable folly to speak of men like Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray, etc. in a tone of happy superiority that would not be justifiable to the humblest literary aspirant.
I return Mrs. Carlyle's pleasant letter. I wrote her a line with G.E.'s message. Tell said G.E. that I have suppressed the extracts. I agree with his feeling about such comments, but they are not intended for the author's perusal but for that of the fools to whom he alludes.
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
G. H. Lewes Esq.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 1 March 1859, 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/95351