GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 8 August 1874
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 8 August 1874
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 8 August 1874
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1874-08-08
Place
Earlswood Common
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 8 August 1874
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 239-242.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | August 8. 74.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Thanks for sending me the good news. The sale of Middlemarch is wonderful out of all whooping, and considered as manifesting the impression made by the book, is more valuable than any amount of immediate distribution.
I suppose there will be a new edition wanted of the Spanish Gypsy by Christmas, and I have a carefully corrected copy by me containing my final alterations, to which I desire to have the stereotype plates adjusted.
As to confidence in the work to be done I am somewhat in the condition suggested to Armgart, [How will you bear the poise of eminence, With dread of falling?] 138 And the other day, having a bad headache, I did what I have sometimes done before at intervals of five or six years -- looked into three or four novels to see what the world was reading. 139
The effect was paralyzing, and certainly justifies me in that abstinence from novel-reading which, I fear, makes me seem supercilious or churlish to the many persons who send me their books or ask me about their friends' books.
To be delivered from all doubts as to one's justification in writing at this stage of the world, one should have either a plentiful faith in one's own exceptionalness or a plentiful lack of money. Tennyson said to me, "Everybody writes so well now," and if the lace is only machine-made it still pushes out the hand-made, which has differences only for a fine fastidious appreciation. To write indifferently after having written well -- that is, from a true, individual store which makes a special contribution -- is like an eminent clergyman's spoiling his reputation by lapses and neutralizing all the good he did before. However, this is superfluous stuff to write to you. It is only a sample of the way in which depression works upon me. I am not the less grateful for all the encouragement I get.
I saw handsome Dean Liddell at Oxford. He is really a grand figure. They accuse him of being obstructive to much-needed reforms -- but everybody accuses everybody else in that seat of learning. For my own part I am thankful to him for his share in [Scott and Liddell] and his capital little Roman History. Apropos of books and St. Andrews, I have read aloud to Mr. Lewes, Professor Flint's volume, and we have been both much pleased with its conscientious presentation and thorough effort at fairness.
We have enjoyed the country as we always do, but we have been, for our constitutions, a little unfortunate in the choice of a spot which is the windiest of the windy. That heat which we have read and heard of has hardly been at all felt by us, and we have both suffered a little from chills which have set our organisms wrong for a week together. But Mr. Lewes is very well now, and works with much enjoyment. I, as you will perceive from my letter, am just now possessed by an evil spirit in the form of headache, but on the whole I am much the stronger for the peace and the delicious air which I take in as a conscious addition to the good of living.
I hope Miss Blackwood will not be convinced that it is Scotland which makes London delightful -- that is, that she prefers London because she does not get much of it.
We have been near buying a little country hermitage on Holmwood Common -- a grand spot with a view hard to match in our flat land.
But we have been frightened away by its windiness. I rather envy Major Lockhart and the rest of the Golfian enthusiasts -- to have a seductive idleness which is really a healthy activity is invaluable to people who have desk work.
Yours always truly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 239-242.
The Cottage | Earlswood Common | August 8. 74.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Thanks for sending me the good news. The sale of Middlemarch is wonderful out of all whooping, and considered as manifesting the impression made by the book, is more valuable than any amount of immediate distribution.
I suppose there will be a new edition wanted of the Spanish Gypsy by Christmas, and I have a carefully corrected copy by me containing my final alterations, to which I desire to have the stereotype plates adjusted.
As to confidence in the work to be done I am somewhat in the condition suggested to Armgart, [How will you bear the poise of eminence, With dread of falling?] 138 And the other day, having a bad headache, I did what I have sometimes done before at intervals of five or six years -- looked into three or four novels to see what the world was reading. 139
The effect was paralyzing, and certainly justifies me in that abstinence from novel-reading which, I fear, makes me seem supercilious or churlish to the many persons who send me their books or ask me about their friends' books.
To be delivered from all doubts as to one's justification in writing at this stage of the world, one should have either a plentiful faith in one's own exceptionalness or a plentiful lack of money. Tennyson said to me, "Everybody writes so well now," and if the lace is only machine-made it still pushes out the hand-made, which has differences only for a fine fastidious appreciation. To write indifferently after having written well -- that is, from a true, individual store which makes a special contribution -- is like an eminent clergyman's spoiling his reputation by lapses and neutralizing all the good he did before. However, this is superfluous stuff to write to you. It is only a sample of the way in which depression works upon me. I am not the less grateful for all the encouragement I get.
I saw handsome Dean Liddell at Oxford. He is really a grand figure. They accuse him of being obstructive to much-needed reforms -- but everybody accuses everybody else in that seat of learning. For my own part I am thankful to him for his share in [Scott and Liddell] and his capital little Roman History. Apropos of books and St. Andrews, I have read aloud to Mr. Lewes, Professor Flint's volume, and we have been both much pleased with its conscientious presentation and thorough effort at fairness.
We have enjoyed the country as we always do, but we have been, for our constitutions, a little unfortunate in the choice of a spot which is the windiest of the windy. That heat which we have read and heard of has hardly been at all felt by us, and we have both suffered a little from chills which have set our organisms wrong for a week together. But Mr. Lewes is very well now, and works with much enjoyment. I, as you will perceive from my letter, am just now possessed by an evil spirit in the form of headache, but on the whole I am much the stronger for the peace and the delicious air which I take in as a conscious addition to the good of living.
I hope Miss Blackwood will not be convinced that it is Scotland which makes London delightful -- that is, that she prefers London because she does not get much of it.
We have been near buying a little country hermitage on Holmwood Common -- a grand spot with a view hard to match in our flat land.
But we have been frightened away by its windiness. I rather envy Major Lockhart and the rest of the Golfian enthusiasts -- to have a seductive idleness which is really a healthy activity is invaluable to people who have desk work.
Yours always truly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Earlswood Common, 8 August 1874, 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/92577