Charles Dickens to John Blackwood, London, 27 January 1858
Title
Charles Dickens to John Blackwood, London, 27 January 1858
Title
Charles Dickens to John Blackwood, London, 27 January 1858
Sender
Charles Dickens
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1858-01-27
Place
London
Letter Content
Charles Dickens to John Blackwood, London, 27 January 1858
Text: John Blackwood, pp. 44-45.
Tavistock House, London, W.C., | 27th January 1858.
My Dear Sir,
I have been very much interested by your extract from "Mr Eliot's" letter, which has given me the greatest pleasure. Also of your account of the manner in which you had the good fortune to find (I say nothing of the good sense immediately to appreciate) that admirable and charming writer.
The portions of the narrative to which you refer had not escaped my notice. But their weight is very light in my scale, against all the references to children, and against such marvels of description as Mrs Barton sitting up in bed to mend the children's clothes. The selfish young fellow with the heart disease, in "Mr Gilfil's Love-Story," is plainly taken from a woman's point of view. Indeed I observe all the women in the book are more alive than the men, and more informed from within. As to Janet, in the last tale, I know nothing in literature done by a man like the frequent references to her grand form, and her eyes and her height and so forth; whereas I do know innumerable things of that kind in books of imagination by women. And I have not the faintest doubt that a woman described her being shut out into the street by her husband, and conceived and executed the whole idea of her following of that clergyman. If I be wrong in this, then I protest that a woman's mind has got into some man's body by a mistake that ought immediately to be corrected.
I feel truly obliged to you and Mrs Blackwood for your friendly invitation; but as I do not expect to remain in Edinburgh more than one complete day, 1072 I am declining hospitalities on all hands, and have no alternative but to do the like in this case, as in a hundred others, against my will.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens.
Text: John Blackwood, pp. 44-45.
Tavistock House, London, W.C., | 27th January 1858.
My Dear Sir,
I have been very much interested by your extract from "Mr Eliot's" letter, which has given me the greatest pleasure. Also of your account of the manner in which you had the good fortune to find (I say nothing of the good sense immediately to appreciate) that admirable and charming writer.
The portions of the narrative to which you refer had not escaped my notice. But their weight is very light in my scale, against all the references to children, and against such marvels of description as Mrs Barton sitting up in bed to mend the children's clothes. The selfish young fellow with the heart disease, in "Mr Gilfil's Love-Story," is plainly taken from a woman's point of view. Indeed I observe all the women in the book are more alive than the men, and more informed from within. As to Janet, in the last tale, I know nothing in literature done by a man like the frequent references to her grand form, and her eyes and her height and so forth; whereas I do know innumerable things of that kind in books of imagination by women. And I have not the faintest doubt that a woman described her being shut out into the street by her husband, and conceived and executed the whole idea of her following of that clergyman. If I be wrong in this, then I protest that a woman's mind has got into some man's body by a mistake that ought immediately to be corrected.
I feel truly obliged to you and Mrs Blackwood for your friendly invitation; but as I do not expect to remain in Edinburgh more than one complete day, 1072 I am declining hospitalities on all hands, and have no alternative but to do the like in this case, as in a hundred others, against my will.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens.
Signature
Charles Dickens.
Citation
Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens to John Blackwood, London, 27 January 1858, 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/91745