John Blackwood to GHL, St. Andrews, 21 July 1866
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, St. Andrews, 21 July 1866
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, St. Andrews, 21 July 1866
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1866-07-21
Place
St. Andrews
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GHL, St. Andrews, 21 July 1866
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews | N.B.
July 21/66.
My Dear Lewes
I think this is about the date you mentioned as likely to catch you at Aix la Chapelle and I hope it will find both of you there well and still enjoying your trip.
I do not know that I ever saw a Novel received with a more universal acclaim than Felix -- the verdict of the Press has amply confirmed all that you and I thought of it. The sale has not yet been so great as I expected, but Mudie had an additional 250 in the beginning of this week and there are other symptoms that the sale is going on. I am not sure as to the exact sale but I think there are about 4400 disposed of. Doubtless the War has affected us, as for a book so admired and universally talked about I would have expected a couple of thousand more to have been gone by this time. 502
I had an amusing illustration the other day of the impossibility everyone feels of reading the book quickly. The chief hair dresser in
Edinburgh, a young female of much shrewdness and a tongue like a Mill Clapper, while pouring forth her praise said, "But do you know, Mr. Blackwood, it has cost me about 5/- at 3d a night from my library to read Felix and enjoy it rightly." I shall give her a copy by and bye for her second reading.
The gigantic events on the Continent occupy all minds and the echo must have come very near you at peaceful Schwalbach. I begin to have a hope that the French Emperor may be checkmated and that we are going to have at last a great united Germany, fit to cope with France. Nothing could have been more unscrupulous and unjust than Prussia's conduct, but only such make conquests. Look at Napoleon or Frederick the Great. Scruples never stood in their way, and men like Carlyle fall down and worship them.
I cannot help feeling desperately sorry for my old friends the Tedeschi. 503 What a feeling it must be for a country to have a noble army like that scattered and smashed in no time. One feels ashamed of caring as much as usual about one's own small concerns in presence of such a calamity to a Nation which, whatever its defects, was in the right in this quarrel.
I have been here almost entirely since I left London, but I go to Edinburgh on Monday to get the Magazine through press. We have delightful weather. I have been busy at Golf. Tell Mrs. Lewes that I do not think she could have been otherwise than pleased with almost every remark I have heard about Felix. Hoping to hear from you soon, I am
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
G. H. Lewes Esq.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Strathtyrum | St. Andrews | N.B.
July 21/66.
My Dear Lewes
I think this is about the date you mentioned as likely to catch you at Aix la Chapelle and I hope it will find both of you there well and still enjoying your trip.
I do not know that I ever saw a Novel received with a more universal acclaim than Felix -- the verdict of the Press has amply confirmed all that you and I thought of it. The sale has not yet been so great as I expected, but Mudie had an additional 250 in the beginning of this week and there are other symptoms that the sale is going on. I am not sure as to the exact sale but I think there are about 4400 disposed of. Doubtless the War has affected us, as for a book so admired and universally talked about I would have expected a couple of thousand more to have been gone by this time. 502
I had an amusing illustration the other day of the impossibility everyone feels of reading the book quickly. The chief hair dresser in
Edinburgh, a young female of much shrewdness and a tongue like a Mill Clapper, while pouring forth her praise said, "But do you know, Mr. Blackwood, it has cost me about 5/- at 3d a night from my library to read Felix and enjoy it rightly." I shall give her a copy by and bye for her second reading.
The gigantic events on the Continent occupy all minds and the echo must have come very near you at peaceful Schwalbach. I begin to have a hope that the French Emperor may be checkmated and that we are going to have at last a great united Germany, fit to cope with France. Nothing could have been more unscrupulous and unjust than Prussia's conduct, but only such make conquests. Look at Napoleon or Frederick the Great. Scruples never stood in their way, and men like Carlyle fall down and worship them.
I cannot help feeling desperately sorry for my old friends the Tedeschi. 503 What a feeling it must be for a country to have a noble army like that scattered and smashed in no time. One feels ashamed of caring as much as usual about one's own small concerns in presence of such a calamity to a Nation which, whatever its defects, was in the right in this quarrel.
I have been here almost entirely since I left London, but I go to Edinburgh on Monday to get the Magazine through press. We have delightful weather. I have been busy at Golf. Tell Mrs. Lewes that I do not think she could have been otherwise than pleased with almost every remark I have heard about Felix. Hoping to hear from you soon, I am
ever yours truly
John Blackwood.
G. H. Lewes Esq.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GHL, St. Andrews, 21 July 1866, 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/95438