GE to John Blackwood, London, 7 February 1875
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 7 February 1875
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 7 February 1875
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1875-02-07
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, London, 7 February 1875
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 253-255.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
February 7. 75.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Last night I finished reading aloud to Mr. Lewes the Inkerman volume, 207 and we both thank you heartily for the valuable present. It is an admirable piece of writing. Such pure, lucid English is what one rarely gets to read. The masterly marshalling of the material is certainly in contrast with the movements described. To my non-military mind the Inkerman affair seems nothing but a brave blundering into victory. Great traits of valour -- Homeric moments -- but also a powerful lack of brains in the form of generalship. I cannot see that the ordering up of the two 18-pounder guns 208 was a vast mental effort, unless the weight of the guns is to be counted in the order as well as the execution. But the grand fact of the thousands beaten by the hundreds remains under all interpretations. Why the Russians in their multitudinous mass should have chosen to retreat into Sebastopol, moving at their leisure and carrying off all their artillery, seems a mystery in spite of General Dannenberg's memorable answer to Mentschikoff. 209
There are some splendid moments in the story -- the tradition of a Minden yell, the "Men, remember Albuera," and the officer of the 77th advancing with "Then I will go by myself," with what followed, are favourite bits of mine. 210 My mind is in this anomalous condition of hating war and loving its discipline, which has been an incalculable contribution to the sentiment of duty. I have not troubled myself to read any reviews of the book. My eye caught one in which the author's style was accused of affectation. But I have long learned to apply to reviews an aphorism which tickled me in my childhood -- "There must be some such to be some of all sorts."
Pray tell Mr. Simpson that I was much pleased with the new dress of the "Spanish Gypsy." I waited for this occasion of writing, to tell him so.
The first part of "Gianetto" 211 raised my interest, but I was disappointed in the unravelling of the plot. It seems to me neither really nor ideally satisfactory. But it is a long while since I read a story newer than Rasselas, which I re-read two years ago with a desire to renew my childish delight in it, when it was one of my best-loved companions. So I was a bad judge of comparative merits among popular writers. I am obliged to fast from fiction, and fasting is known sometimes to weaken the stomach. I ought to except Miss Thackeray's stories, which I cannot resist when they come near me -- and bits of Mr. Trollope, for affection's sake. You would not wonder at my fasting if you knew how deplorably uncalled for and "everything-that-it-should-not-be" my own fiction seems to me in times of inward and outward fog -- like this morning when the light is dim on my paper.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 253-255.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
February 7. 75.
My dear Mr. Blackwood
Last night I finished reading aloud to Mr. Lewes the Inkerman volume, 207 and we both thank you heartily for the valuable present. It is an admirable piece of writing. Such pure, lucid English is what one rarely gets to read. The masterly marshalling of the material is certainly in contrast with the movements described. To my non-military mind the Inkerman affair seems nothing but a brave blundering into victory. Great traits of valour -- Homeric moments -- but also a powerful lack of brains in the form of generalship. I cannot see that the ordering up of the two 18-pounder guns 208 was a vast mental effort, unless the weight of the guns is to be counted in the order as well as the execution. But the grand fact of the thousands beaten by the hundreds remains under all interpretations. Why the Russians in their multitudinous mass should have chosen to retreat into Sebastopol, moving at their leisure and carrying off all their artillery, seems a mystery in spite of General Dannenberg's memorable answer to Mentschikoff. 209
There are some splendid moments in the story -- the tradition of a Minden yell, the "Men, remember Albuera," and the officer of the 77th advancing with "Then I will go by myself," with what followed, are favourite bits of mine. 210 My mind is in this anomalous condition of hating war and loving its discipline, which has been an incalculable contribution to the sentiment of duty. I have not troubled myself to read any reviews of the book. My eye caught one in which the author's style was accused of affectation. But I have long learned to apply to reviews an aphorism which tickled me in my childhood -- "There must be some such to be some of all sorts."
Pray tell Mr. Simpson that I was much pleased with the new dress of the "Spanish Gypsy." I waited for this occasion of writing, to tell him so.
The first part of "Gianetto" 211 raised my interest, but I was disappointed in the unravelling of the plot. It seems to me neither really nor ideally satisfactory. But it is a long while since I read a story newer than Rasselas, which I re-read two years ago with a desire to renew my childish delight in it, when it was one of my best-loved companions. So I was a bad judge of comparative merits among popular writers. I am obliged to fast from fiction, and fasting is known sometimes to weaken the stomach. I ought to except Miss Thackeray's stories, which I cannot resist when they come near me -- and bits of Mr. Trollope, for affection's sake. You would not wonder at my fasting if you knew how deplorably uncalled for and "everything-that-it-should-not-be" my own fiction seems to me in times of inward and outward fog -- like this morning when the light is dim on my paper.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, London, 7 February 1875, 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/92694