GE to John Blackwood, London, 2 November 1860
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 2 November 1860
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 2 November 1860
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1860-11-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, London, 2 November 1860
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 277-278.
Harewood Square | November 2. 1860.
My dear Sir
I was very pleased to have your letter this morning enclosing the title-pages.
I agree with you in preferring to put simply "New Edition"; and I see, too, that the practice of advertising numbers is made vulgar and worthless by the doubtful veracity of some publishers, and the low character of the books to which they affix this supposed guarantee of popularity. Magna est veritas etc. 656 -- I can't tell you how much comfort I feel in having publishers who believe that.
You have read the hostile article in the Quarterly, 657 I dare say. I have not seen it, but Mr. Lewes's report of it made me more cheerful than any review I have heard of since "The Mill" came out. You remember Lord John Russell was once laughed at immensely for saying that he felt confident he was right because all parties found fault with him. I really find myself taking nearly the same view of my position, with the Freethinkers angry with me on one side and the writer in the Quarterly on the other -- not because my representations are untruthful but because they are impartial -- because I don't load my dice so as to make their side win. The parenthetical hint that the "classical quotations" in my books might be "more correctly printed," 658 is an amusing sample of the genuineness that belongs to review-writing in general, since there happens to be only one classical quotation in them all -- the Greek one from the Philoctetes 659 in "Amos Barton." By the by, will you see that the readers have not allowed some error to creep into that solitary bit of pedantry?
I have not been well lately, and so have been more than usually downhearted, but I expect a course of mercury and tonics to have a strong moral effect upon me, and then I will write to you about my doings.
Mr. Lewes will set to work on the article in question. He is unusually flourishing, and able to enjoy his work. Remember me kindly to Major Blackwood, and believe me
Always yours truly
Marian Evans Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 277-278.
Harewood Square | November 2. 1860.
My dear Sir
I was very pleased to have your letter this morning enclosing the title-pages.
I agree with you in preferring to put simply "New Edition"; and I see, too, that the practice of advertising numbers is made vulgar and worthless by the doubtful veracity of some publishers, and the low character of the books to which they affix this supposed guarantee of popularity. Magna est veritas etc. 656 -- I can't tell you how much comfort I feel in having publishers who believe that.
You have read the hostile article in the Quarterly, 657 I dare say. I have not seen it, but Mr. Lewes's report of it made me more cheerful than any review I have heard of since "The Mill" came out. You remember Lord John Russell was once laughed at immensely for saying that he felt confident he was right because all parties found fault with him. I really find myself taking nearly the same view of my position, with the Freethinkers angry with me on one side and the writer in the Quarterly on the other -- not because my representations are untruthful but because they are impartial -- because I don't load my dice so as to make their side win. The parenthetical hint that the "classical quotations" in my books might be "more correctly printed," 658 is an amusing sample of the genuineness that belongs to review-writing in general, since there happens to be only one classical quotation in them all -- the Greek one from the Philoctetes 659 in "Amos Barton." By the by, will you see that the readers have not allowed some error to creep into that solitary bit of pedantry?
I have not been well lately, and so have been more than usually downhearted, but I expect a course of mercury and tonics to have a strong moral effect upon me, and then I will write to you about my doings.
Mr. Lewes will set to work on the article in question. He is unusually flourishing, and able to enjoy his work. Remember me kindly to Major Blackwood, and believe me
Always yours truly
Marian Evans Lewes.
Signature
Marian Evans Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, London, 2 November 1860, 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/92630