John Blackwood to Mrs. John Blackwood, London, [15] June 1861
Title
John Blackwood to Mrs. John Blackwood, London, [15] June 1861
Title
John Blackwood to Mrs. John Blackwood, London, [15] June 1861
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
Mrs. John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1861-06-15
Place
London
Letter Content
John Blackwood to Mrs. John Blackwood, London, [15] June 1861
Text: John Blackwood, p. 79.
Her great difficulty seems to be that she, as she describes it, hears her characters talking, and there is a weight upon her mind as if Savonarola and friends ought to be speaking Italian instead of English. Her description of how she realised her characters was very marvellous. I never heard anything so good as her distinction between what is called the real and the imaginative. It amounted to this, That you could not have the former without the latter and greater quality. Any real observation of life and character must be limited, and the imagination must fill in and give life to the picture. '91Silas Marner'92 sprang from her childish recollection of a man with a stoop and expression of face that led her to think that he was an alien from his fellows. The dialect of Lisbeth in '91Adam Bede'92 arose from her occasionally hearing her father when with his brothers revert to the dialect of his native district, Derbyshire. She could not tell how the feeling and knowledge came to her, but when Lisbeth was speaking she felt it was a real language which she heard. Lewes and she are going to dine with me one day at Greenwich.
Text: John Blackwood, p. 79.
Her great difficulty seems to be that she, as she describes it, hears her characters talking, and there is a weight upon her mind as if Savonarola and friends ought to be speaking Italian instead of English. Her description of how she realised her characters was very marvellous. I never heard anything so good as her distinction between what is called the real and the imaginative. It amounted to this, That you could not have the former without the latter and greater quality. Any real observation of life and character must be limited, and the imagination must fill in and give life to the picture. '91Silas Marner'92 sprang from her childish recollection of a man with a stoop and expression of face that led her to think that he was an alien from his fellows. The dialect of Lisbeth in '91Adam Bede'92 arose from her occasionally hearing her father when with his brothers revert to the dialect of his native district, Derbyshire. She could not tell how the feeling and knowledge came to her, but when Lisbeth was speaking she felt it was a real language which she heard. Lewes and she are going to dine with me one day at Greenwich.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to Mrs. John Blackwood, London, [15] June 1861, 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/95458