GE to Alexander Main, London, 17 December 1877
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 17 December 1877
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 17 December 1877
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Alexander Main
Date(s)
- 1877-12-17
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Alexander Main, London, 17 December 1877
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 17. 77.
My dear Mr. Main
Messrs. Blackwood have sent to me (and I have returned) your collection of extracts for the Birthday Book, of course with the desire that I should make any observations which occurred to me. I will only trouble you with such as appear to be quite practical.
On running through the pages I was impressed with the fact that certain small passages broken from their widely spaced dramatic connection in the complete novel where they have a value as characteristic dialogue over and above their general bearing, produce within the narrow compass of this selection a disadvantageous effect of recurrence to the same, or a similar, idea. There seem to be too many small epigrams from Mrs. Poyser and Bartle Massey on feminine perversity or stupidity, and of the former on that troublesome personage "Old Harry." I ventured rashly to mark one quotation as having been made twice. I beg pardon if I am wrong, but the quotation is one that might very well be altogether omitted.
The only other observation I have to make is, that the selections from "Daniel Deronda" seem to be noticeably scant and uncharacteristic of the work. Probably you were under pressure to get your pages ready, and writing out passages costs time. But I cannot understand why Messrs. Blackwood did not furnish sheets of the one volume edition for your use. If some of the less important quotations from the other works had been omitted in favour of more pregnant things from Deronda, this Birthday Book would have seemed less like a mere redistribution of the "Sayings."
The mottoes for the months seem very felicitously chosen.
I rather thoughtlessly, under the impulse of the first moment, put my pen across two passages and wrote "something else" -- a freedom with your "copy" which would have been less unsuitable if I had thought in time of forwarding the parcel to you instead of to Edinburgh. Pray do not understand me as being disposed to find fault rather than to congratulate. I have only thought it a pity not to mention two points which may possibly serve as guidance in some small alterations or substitutions. I have put the pages to the severe test of reading them seriatim without pause, which no one else is likely to do, and besides, an author is by nature prone to think tenderly of his unquoted sentences.
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 17. 77.
My dear Mr. Main
Messrs. Blackwood have sent to me (and I have returned) your collection of extracts for the Birthday Book, of course with the desire that I should make any observations which occurred to me. I will only trouble you with such as appear to be quite practical.
On running through the pages I was impressed with the fact that certain small passages broken from their widely spaced dramatic connection in the complete novel where they have a value as characteristic dialogue over and above their general bearing, produce within the narrow compass of this selection a disadvantageous effect of recurrence to the same, or a similar, idea. There seem to be too many small epigrams from Mrs. Poyser and Bartle Massey on feminine perversity or stupidity, and of the former on that troublesome personage "Old Harry." I ventured rashly to mark one quotation as having been made twice. I beg pardon if I am wrong, but the quotation is one that might very well be altogether omitted.
The only other observation I have to make is, that the selections from "Daniel Deronda" seem to be noticeably scant and uncharacteristic of the work. Probably you were under pressure to get your pages ready, and writing out passages costs time. But I cannot understand why Messrs. Blackwood did not furnish sheets of the one volume edition for your use. If some of the less important quotations from the other works had been omitted in favour of more pregnant things from Deronda, this Birthday Book would have seemed less like a mere redistribution of the "Sayings."
The mottoes for the months seem very felicitously chosen.
I rather thoughtlessly, under the impulse of the first moment, put my pen across two passages and wrote "something else" -- a freedom with your "copy" which would have been less unsuitable if I had thought in time of forwarding the parcel to you instead of to Edinburgh. Pray do not understand me as being disposed to find fault rather than to congratulate. I have only thought it a pity not to mention two points which may possibly serve as guidance in some small alterations or substitutions. I have put the pages to the severe test of reading them seriatim without pause, which no one else is likely to do, and besides, an author is by nature prone to think tenderly of his unquoted sentences.
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Alexander Main, London, 17 December 1877, 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/91989