William Blackwood to GHL, London, 16 May 1868
Title
William Blackwood to GHL, London, 16 May 1868
Title
William Blackwood to GHL, London, 16 May 1868
Sender
William Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1868-05-16
Place
London
Letter Content
William Blackwood to GHL, London, 16 May 1868
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
May 16/68.
My Dear Mr. Lewes
I have given Mr. Langford special instructions about not letting a single copy of the poem out of our hands until the 25th and am also letting them know your wishes at Edinburgh. I daresay you will have observed that we are advertising it for that day. In a letter from Mr. Brown 762 (our press proof reader) received this morning he writes me as follows, and as I think it will interest and please Mrs. Lewes, I quote him at length.
"I am reading Fedalma over again in its perfected form and am more and more struck with its matchless depth and power. Of course it is impossible to say how that mysterious reading public, which buys Charles Dickens by the ten thousand for the thousand of Romola or Felix Holt, will take it, but if Fedalma does not, with the better and more thoughtful part of it, place George Eliot as high among poets as she already stands among novelists, my opinion of the reading intellect of the age will go down to zero. So far as printing etc. goes it promises to be a very handsome book." For Mr. Brown this is tremendous strong.
Hoping you and Mrs. Lewes are better, believe me
Ever yours truly
William Blackwood.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
May 16/68.
My Dear Mr. Lewes
I have given Mr. Langford special instructions about not letting a single copy of the poem out of our hands until the 25th and am also letting them know your wishes at Edinburgh. I daresay you will have observed that we are advertising it for that day. In a letter from Mr. Brown 762 (our press proof reader) received this morning he writes me as follows, and as I think it will interest and please Mrs. Lewes, I quote him at length.
"I am reading Fedalma over again in its perfected form and am more and more struck with its matchless depth and power. Of course it is impossible to say how that mysterious reading public, which buys Charles Dickens by the ten thousand for the thousand of Romola or Felix Holt, will take it, but if Fedalma does not, with the better and more thoughtful part of it, place George Eliot as high among poets as she already stands among novelists, my opinion of the reading intellect of the age will go down to zero. So far as printing etc. goes it promises to be a very handsome book." For Mr. Brown this is tremendous strong.
Hoping you and Mrs. Lewes are better, believe me
Ever yours truly
William Blackwood.
Signature
William Blackwood.
Citation
William Blackwood, William Blackwood to GHL, London, 16 May 1868, 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/95668