GE to Charles Ritter, London, 11 February 1873
Title
GE to Charles Ritter, London, 11 February 1873
Title
GE to Charles Ritter, London, 11 February 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Ritter
Date(s)
- 1873-02-11
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Charles Ritter, London, 11 February 1873
MS: Biblioth'e8que Publique et Universitaire, Geneva. Extracts published: Cross, New Edition, p. 506.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
February 11. 73.
My dear Sir
Much gratitude for your letter of the 7th 720 telling me your impressions of "Middlemarch"! I count spontaneous words such as yours among my most precious encouragements; indeed, after my husband's sympathy letters from those personally unknown to me are the only testimonies to the effect of my writing on which I thoroughly rely. But correspondents whose culture, like yours, enables them to judge of a work as a whole and not merely, as Goethe's Theaterdirektor says, 721 pick out morsels to suit their own palate, are necessarily rare. Many will get good from a book and yet be unable to speak rationally about it; their words are much worse than some inarticulate sounds -- groans or bleats or mewings which would simply tell one that they are moved. For words are helpless borrowings and echoes, giving no description of what has gone on within the speaker. All this you know as well as I do, and therefore you cannot doubt that your letter is worth a great deal to me.
From what you say about public criticism, 722 you will understand why Mr. Lewes keeps all reviews of my books away from me. If he reads them himself, he only gives me an occasional quotation which he thinks will cheer me by its exceptional insight. But he has not yet seen the article in the Revue des deux Mondes 723 to which you refer. Though "Middlemarch" seems to have made a deep impression in our own country, and though the critics are as polite and benevolent as possible to me, there has not, I believe, been one really able review of the book in our newspapers and periodicals. And after one has had much experience as a writer, praise, as such, is incapable of stirring any fibre of joy. What one's soul thirsts for is the word which is the refle[ction] of one's own aim and delight in writing -- the word which shows that what one meant has been perfectly seized, that the emotion which stirred one in writing is repeated in the mind of the reader. That you should have picked out those exquisite words of Vinet's -- "o'f9 l''e9l'e9gance la plus exquise semble n''eatre qu'une partie de la v'e9rit'e9" -- 724 as representing your judgment about what I have written, is a peculiar comfort to me. It is precisely my ideal -- to make matter and form an inseparable truthfulness.
Mr. Lewes, who feels more keenly than I do, every tribute of sympathy which is given to me, unites with me in high regards to you, and I am always, my dear Sir,
Yours most sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Biblioth'e8que Publique et Universitaire, Geneva. Extracts published: Cross, New Edition, p. 506.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
February 11. 73.
My dear Sir
Much gratitude for your letter of the 7th 720 telling me your impressions of "Middlemarch"! I count spontaneous words such as yours among my most precious encouragements; indeed, after my husband's sympathy letters from those personally unknown to me are the only testimonies to the effect of my writing on which I thoroughly rely. But correspondents whose culture, like yours, enables them to judge of a work as a whole and not merely, as Goethe's Theaterdirektor says, 721 pick out morsels to suit their own palate, are necessarily rare. Many will get good from a book and yet be unable to speak rationally about it; their words are much worse than some inarticulate sounds -- groans or bleats or mewings which would simply tell one that they are moved. For words are helpless borrowings and echoes, giving no description of what has gone on within the speaker. All this you know as well as I do, and therefore you cannot doubt that your letter is worth a great deal to me.
From what you say about public criticism, 722 you will understand why Mr. Lewes keeps all reviews of my books away from me. If he reads them himself, he only gives me an occasional quotation which he thinks will cheer me by its exceptional insight. But he has not yet seen the article in the Revue des deux Mondes 723 to which you refer. Though "Middlemarch" seems to have made a deep impression in our own country, and though the critics are as polite and benevolent as possible to me, there has not, I believe, been one really able review of the book in our newspapers and periodicals. And after one has had much experience as a writer, praise, as such, is incapable of stirring any fibre of joy. What one's soul thirsts for is the word which is the refle[ction] of one's own aim and delight in writing -- the word which shows that what one meant has been perfectly seized, that the emotion which stirred one in writing is repeated in the mind of the reader. That you should have picked out those exquisite words of Vinet's -- "o'f9 l''e9l'e9gance la plus exquise semble n''eatre qu'une partie de la v'e9rit'e9" -- 724 as representing your judgment about what I have written, is a peculiar comfort to me. It is precisely my ideal -- to make matter and form an inseparable truthfulness.
Mr. Lewes, who feels more keenly than I do, every tribute of sympathy which is given to me, unites with me in high regards to you, and I am always, my dear Sir,
Yours most sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Ritter, London, 11 February 1873, 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/92252