GE to John Blackwood, Gorey, 2 June 1857
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Gorey, 2 June 1857
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Gorey, 2 June 1857
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1857-06-02
Place
Gorey
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Gorey, 2 June 1857
MS: National Library of Scotland. Published: Cross, I, 452-454.
Rosa Cottage | Gorey | Jersey | June 2. 57.
My dear Sir
I send you by the same post with this the First Part of my Third Story, 875 which I hope will not disappoint you. The part is, I think, rather longer than my parts have usually been, but it would have been injurious to the effect of the story to pause earlier.
Pleasant letters like yours are the best possible stimulus to an author's powers, and if I don't write better and better, the fault will certainly not lie in my editor, who seems to have been created in preestablished harmony with the organization of a susceptible contributor.
This island, too, with its grassy vallies and pretty indented coast, is not at all a bad haunt for the Muses, if, as one may suppose, they have dropped their too scanty classical attire and appear in long dresses and brown hats, like decent Christian women likely to inspire [Clerical Scenes.]
Moreover, having myself a slight zoological weakness, I am less alarmed than most people at the society of a zoological maniac. So that, altogether, your contributor is in promising circumstances, and if he doesn't behave like an animal in good condition, is clearly unworthy of his keep.
I am much gratified to have made the conquest of Professor Aytoun, but with a parent's love for the depreciated child, I can't help standing up for [Amos] as better than [Gilfil.]
Lewes seems to have higher expectations from the third story than from either of the preceding; but I can form no judgment myself until I have quite finished a thing and see it aloof from my actual self. I can only go on writing what I feel, and waiting for the proof that I have been able to make others feel. Ever, my dear Sir,
Yours faithfully
George Eliot.
J. Blackwood Esq.
Please to pay any money for me to Lewes's account, as that will be the simplest plan, and you will in that case merely have the further trouble of informing me.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Published: Cross, I, 452-454.
Rosa Cottage | Gorey | Jersey | June 2. 57.
My dear Sir
I send you by the same post with this the First Part of my Third Story, 875 which I hope will not disappoint you. The part is, I think, rather longer than my parts have usually been, but it would have been injurious to the effect of the story to pause earlier.
Pleasant letters like yours are the best possible stimulus to an author's powers, and if I don't write better and better, the fault will certainly not lie in my editor, who seems to have been created in preestablished harmony with the organization of a susceptible contributor.
This island, too, with its grassy vallies and pretty indented coast, is not at all a bad haunt for the Muses, if, as one may suppose, they have dropped their too scanty classical attire and appear in long dresses and brown hats, like decent Christian women likely to inspire [Clerical Scenes.]
Moreover, having myself a slight zoological weakness, I am less alarmed than most people at the society of a zoological maniac. So that, altogether, your contributor is in promising circumstances, and if he doesn't behave like an animal in good condition, is clearly unworthy of his keep.
I am much gratified to have made the conquest of Professor Aytoun, but with a parent's love for the depreciated child, I can't help standing up for [Amos] as better than [Gilfil.]
Lewes seems to have higher expectations from the third story than from either of the preceding; but I can form no judgment myself until I have quite finished a thing and see it aloof from my actual self. I can only go on writing what I feel, and waiting for the proof that I have been able to make others feel. Ever, my dear Sir,
Yours faithfully
George Eliot.
J. Blackwood Esq.
Please to pay any money for me to Lewes's account, as that will be the simplest plan, and you will in that case merely have the further trouble of informing me.
Signature
George Eliot.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Gorey, 2 June 1857, 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/92583