GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 1 March 1858
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 1 March 1858
Title
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 1 March 1858
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Date(s)
- 1858-03-01
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 1 March 1858
MS: The Countess of Iddesleigh. Envelope: Miss Parkes | 14A Princes Street | Cavendish Square | London. Postmarks: RICHMOND; LONDON EC | 8NT | MR 1 | 58. Hitherto unpublished.
Richmond | March 1. 58.
Dear Bessie
I have been a good deal moved by your opening paper on the Profession of the Teacher. 1090 A series of articles on that class of subjects, well nourished with facts, would be likely to make the Journal acceptable and useful. I should especially like to see you return to the charge on the subject you touch upon at pp. 11 and 12.
The chief suggestion that has occurred to me on looking through the Magazine is this: that it would be a better thing to do, in a literary sense, and therefore in a business sense, if you chose to give one good and long criticism of some work worthy either to be read or damned, in place of several short notices. You would get as many books of the better sort sent to you; and as for publishers and their advertisements, they follow success, which will not be won by futile writing.
The state of weekly and monthly book-reviewing is to me so nauseating -- such a miserable hodge-podge of conceited incompetence, hackneyed phrases, unscrupulous praise and unscrupulous blame, that I should like you to use your present opportunity of sending a clear little current along that muddy gutter. You would be doing something towards this by having a carefully written review of a single book, or cluster of kindred books, every month. There would be some nourishment for your readers in that.
I know you will forgive me for obtruding this opinion on you. All opinions are good for something, 'e0 propos of periodicals intended for the gros publique.
Ever your affectionate
Marian.
MS: The Countess of Iddesleigh. Envelope: Miss Parkes | 14A Princes Street | Cavendish Square | London. Postmarks: RICHMOND; LONDON EC | 8NT | MR 1 | 58. Hitherto unpublished.
Richmond | March 1. 58.
Dear Bessie
I have been a good deal moved by your opening paper on the Profession of the Teacher. 1090 A series of articles on that class of subjects, well nourished with facts, would be likely to make the Journal acceptable and useful. I should especially like to see you return to the charge on the subject you touch upon at pp. 11 and 12.
The chief suggestion that has occurred to me on looking through the Magazine is this: that it would be a better thing to do, in a literary sense, and therefore in a business sense, if you chose to give one good and long criticism of some work worthy either to be read or damned, in place of several short notices. You would get as many books of the better sort sent to you; and as for publishers and their advertisements, they follow success, which will not be won by futile writing.
The state of weekly and monthly book-reviewing is to me so nauseating -- such a miserable hodge-podge of conceited incompetence, hackneyed phrases, unscrupulous praise and unscrupulous blame, that I should like you to use your present opportunity of sending a clear little current along that muddy gutter. You would be doing something towards this by having a carefully written review of a single book, or cluster of kindred books, every month. There would be some nourishment for your readers in that.
I know you will forgive me for obtruding this opinion on you. All opinions are good for something, 'e0 propos of periodicals intended for the gros publique.
Ever your affectionate
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Bessie Rayner Parkes, Richmond, 1 March 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/92065