The New Republic: or, Culture, faith, and philosophy in an English country house

The New Republic: or, Culture, faith, and philosophy in an English country house

Mallock, William Hurrell

London: Chatto & Windus, 1877

Internet Archive

1877

George Eliot to the Honorable Mrs. Henry Frederick Ponsonby, 17 October 1877. “And next -- it will perhaps surprise you to know that, having read the New Republic I think it one of the most condemnable books of the day; not simply because the Master of Balliol is a friend for whom I have a high regard. If I had known nothing of Mr. Jowett personally, I should equally have felt disapprobation of a work in which a young man who has no solid contribution of his own to make, sets about attempting to turn into ridicule the men who are most prominent in serious effort to make such contribution. With that impression from the New Republic I was not inclined to read anything by the same writer until I heard that he had repented and been converted to the emotions of gratitude and reverence. I think that kind of direct personal portraiture (or caricature, for except of Mr. Jowett and one other, the drawing is mere distortion) is a bastard kind of satire that I am not disposed to think the better of because Aristophanes used it in relation to Socrates. Do you know that pretty story about Bishop Thirlwall -- that when somebody wanted to bring to him Forchhammer as a distinguished German writer, he replied, "No! I will never receive into my house the man who justified the death of Socrates."” GEL 6: 406-7 

Mallock, William Hurrell, The New Republic: or, Culture, faith, and philosophy in an English country house, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57562

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/bc6cc155b9da4ecb1219dca8ce6fcca9.pdf