Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 3 October 1868
Title
Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 3 October 1868
Title
Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 3 October 1868
Sender
Anthony Trollope
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1868-10-03
Place
Waltham Cross
Letter Content
Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 3 October 1868
MS: Yale. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, pp. 230-231.
Waltham House, | Waltham Cross.
October 3. 1868.
Dear Lewes.
Thanks. The paper 819 has not come to me, but has no doubt gone to the office. I will order a proof to be sent to you as soon as I get there. I have no doubt all good smokers will express their lasting gratitude in some substantial form; -- a pyramid of cigar ashes -- or a mausoleum for, long-delayed, future use, constructed of old pipe stems and tobacco stoppers. I will call up and discuss it when I have read it.
In regard to the Spanish Gypsy my regret is that the poet departed in portions of her work from the dramatic form. The departure would seem to imply, -- which is certainly not the case, -- that she had lacked power to say all her story in that which is certainly the most efficacious and I think the most perfect form of expression. I think too that the strictly dramatic portions of the poem are stronger than those in which she recedes to narrative, -- as would be naturally the case.
Fedalma, Zarca and Juan are perfect. Sylva, no doubt intentionally, is so much inferior as a creature to these, that the character, and words attributed to the character, are less striking.
Yours always
A. T.
MS: Yale. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, pp. 230-231.
Waltham House, | Waltham Cross.
October 3. 1868.
Dear Lewes.
Thanks. The paper 819 has not come to me, but has no doubt gone to the office. I will order a proof to be sent to you as soon as I get there. I have no doubt all good smokers will express their lasting gratitude in some substantial form; -- a pyramid of cigar ashes -- or a mausoleum for, long-delayed, future use, constructed of old pipe stems and tobacco stoppers. I will call up and discuss it when I have read it.
In regard to the Spanish Gypsy my regret is that the poet departed in portions of her work from the dramatic form. The departure would seem to imply, -- which is certainly not the case, -- that she had lacked power to say all her story in that which is certainly the most efficacious and I think the most perfect form of expression. I think too that the strictly dramatic portions of the poem are stronger than those in which she recedes to narrative, -- as would be naturally the case.
Fedalma, Zarca and Juan are perfect. Sylva, no doubt intentionally, is so much inferior as a creature to these, that the character, and words attributed to the character, are less striking.
Yours always
A. T.
Signature
A. T.
Citation
Anthony Trollope, Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 3 October 1868, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91719