GE to John Blackwood, London, 14 March 1872
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 14 March 1872
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 14 March 1872
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1872-03-14
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, London, 14 March 1872
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 154-156.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 14. 72.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Thanks for the budget of this morning. The sales, we think, are very cheering, and we may well be content if they continue in the same ratio. But the Greek proverb about the beginning being the half of the whole 478 wants as much defining and excepting-from as most other proverbs.
I have just had sent me a copy of the "Magazin f'fcr die Literatur des Auslandes" containing a review of "Miss Brooke" 479 which will be good for Asher's edition and is otherwise satisfactory as an intelligent appreciation. It mentions at the end the appearance of Mr. Main's book (The Sayings). A Frenchman, apparently accomplished, a M. Landolphe 480 who has made some important translations, is going to translate the whole of Middlemarch; and one of the contributors to the Revue des deux Mondes has written for leave to extract Dorothea's history. 481 Mr. Lewes has told him that he may do this in the form of articles containing simple extracts, not introducing into my text any matter of his own, seeing that I altogether abominate the proc'e9d'e9 of M. Forgues and others who undertake to trim and abridge.
I fancy we have done a good turn to English authors generally by setting off Asher's Series, for we have heard that Tauchnitz has raised his offers. There is another way in which benefit might come, that would be still more desirable, namely, to make him more careful in his selections of books for reprint. But I fear that this effect is not so certain. You see, Franz Duncker, who publishes the German translation of Middlemarch, 482 has also begun an English series. This is really worth while, for the Germans are excellent readers of our books: I was astonished to find so many in Berlin who really knew one's books and did not merely pay compliments after the fashion of the admirers who made Rousseau savage -- running after him to pay him visits, and not knowing a word of his writing. You and other good readers have spoiled me and made me rather shudder at being read only once, and you may imagine how little satisfaction I get from people who mean to please me by saying that they shall wait till Middlemarch is finished and then sit up to read it "at one go-off."
Poor Mr. Robert Lytton has had a bad illness, a pleurisy, but is getting well again, and writes us word that his good lovely wife is going to have another baby. We are hoping it will be a boy, 483 to console her after her loss of the fine little fellow who died last year.
I have been a little better of late until the last two days which have brought a fit of sick headache. We are looking for a country retreat not too far from town, so that we may run up easily. Mr. Lewes is prospering, and our son Bertie writes from Africa (he is married, you know!) that he and his wife are as happy as mortals can be. So, you see, there is nothing wanting to our happiness except that Middlemarch should be well ended, without growing signs of its author's debility.
I hope you were as glad as I was at the ending of the Tichborne case. And now there is something quite as odious, but happily briefer, to take its place. Certainly, the Times is not "family reading." 484
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
I fear Mr. William Smith is getting weaker and weaker. His wife was afraid of the excitement that a special visit by a friend coming all the way from London, would cause him. She has been obliged to decline many proposals of that sort from distant friends.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 154-156.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 14. 72.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Thanks for the budget of this morning. The sales, we think, are very cheering, and we may well be content if they continue in the same ratio. But the Greek proverb about the beginning being the half of the whole 478 wants as much defining and excepting-from as most other proverbs.
I have just had sent me a copy of the "Magazin f'fcr die Literatur des Auslandes" containing a review of "Miss Brooke" 479 which will be good for Asher's edition and is otherwise satisfactory as an intelligent appreciation. It mentions at the end the appearance of Mr. Main's book (The Sayings). A Frenchman, apparently accomplished, a M. Landolphe 480 who has made some important translations, is going to translate the whole of Middlemarch; and one of the contributors to the Revue des deux Mondes has written for leave to extract Dorothea's history. 481 Mr. Lewes has told him that he may do this in the form of articles containing simple extracts, not introducing into my text any matter of his own, seeing that I altogether abominate the proc'e9d'e9 of M. Forgues and others who undertake to trim and abridge.
I fancy we have done a good turn to English authors generally by setting off Asher's Series, for we have heard that Tauchnitz has raised his offers. There is another way in which benefit might come, that would be still more desirable, namely, to make him more careful in his selections of books for reprint. But I fear that this effect is not so certain. You see, Franz Duncker, who publishes the German translation of Middlemarch, 482 has also begun an English series. This is really worth while, for the Germans are excellent readers of our books: I was astonished to find so many in Berlin who really knew one's books and did not merely pay compliments after the fashion of the admirers who made Rousseau savage -- running after him to pay him visits, and not knowing a word of his writing. You and other good readers have spoiled me and made me rather shudder at being read only once, and you may imagine how little satisfaction I get from people who mean to please me by saying that they shall wait till Middlemarch is finished and then sit up to read it "at one go-off."
Poor Mr. Robert Lytton has had a bad illness, a pleurisy, but is getting well again, and writes us word that his good lovely wife is going to have another baby. We are hoping it will be a boy, 483 to console her after her loss of the fine little fellow who died last year.
I have been a little better of late until the last two days which have brought a fit of sick headache. We are looking for a country retreat not too far from town, so that we may run up easily. Mr. Lewes is prospering, and our son Bertie writes from Africa (he is married, you know!) that he and his wife are as happy as mortals can be. So, you see, there is nothing wanting to our happiness except that Middlemarch should be well ended, without growing signs of its author's debility.
I hope you were as glad as I was at the ending of the Tichborne case. And now there is something quite as odious, but happily briefer, to take its place. Certainly, the Times is not "family reading." 484
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
I fear Mr. William Smith is getting weaker and weaker. His wife was afraid of the excitement that a special visit by a friend coming all the way from London, would cause him. She has been obliged to decline many proposals of that sort from distant friends.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, London, 14 March 1872, 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/92611