GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 August 1860
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 August 1860
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 August 1860
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1860-08-28
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 August 1860
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 271-273.
Private
Holly Lodge | August 28. 60.
My dear Sir
I am grieved to hear of Major Blackwood's illness, 621 for more important reasons than our own disappointment of the pleasure we had looked forward to in seeing him. Mr. Langford had sent us word of the illness, but had not given us the idea that it was so serious as it has been. I hope when you write again you will be quite freed from anxiety.
I think I must tell you the secret, though I am distrusting my power to make it grow into a published fact. When we were in Florence I was rather fired with the idea of writing a historical romance -- scene, Florence -- period, the close of the fifteenth century, which was marked by Savonarola's career and martyrdom. Mr. Lewes has encouraged me to persevere in the project, saying that I should probably do something in historical romance rather different in character from what has been done before. But I want first to write another English story, 622 and the plan I should like to carry out is this: to publish my next English novel when my Italian one is advanced enough for us to begin its publication a few months afterwards in Maga. It would appear without a name in the Magazine, and be subsequently reprinted with the name of George Eliot. I need not tell you the wherefore of this plan -- you know well enough the received phrases with which a writer is greeted when he does something else than what was expected of him.
But just now I am quite without confidence in my future doings, and almost repent of having formed conceptions which will go on lashing me now until I have at least tried to fulfil them.
I am going to-day to give my last sitting to Lawrence, 623 and we were counting on the Major's coming to look at the portrait, and judge of it. I hope it will be satisfactory, for I am quite set against going through the same process a second time.
We are a little distracted just now with the prospect of removal from our present house, which some obliging people have at last come to take off our hands.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
J. Blackwood Esq.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 271-273.
Private
Holly Lodge | August 28. 60.
My dear Sir
I am grieved to hear of Major Blackwood's illness, 621 for more important reasons than our own disappointment of the pleasure we had looked forward to in seeing him. Mr. Langford had sent us word of the illness, but had not given us the idea that it was so serious as it has been. I hope when you write again you will be quite freed from anxiety.
I think I must tell you the secret, though I am distrusting my power to make it grow into a published fact. When we were in Florence I was rather fired with the idea of writing a historical romance -- scene, Florence -- period, the close of the fifteenth century, which was marked by Savonarola's career and martyrdom. Mr. Lewes has encouraged me to persevere in the project, saying that I should probably do something in historical romance rather different in character from what has been done before. But I want first to write another English story, 622 and the plan I should like to carry out is this: to publish my next English novel when my Italian one is advanced enough for us to begin its publication a few months afterwards in Maga. It would appear without a name in the Magazine, and be subsequently reprinted with the name of George Eliot. I need not tell you the wherefore of this plan -- you know well enough the received phrases with which a writer is greeted when he does something else than what was expected of him.
But just now I am quite without confidence in my future doings, and almost repent of having formed conceptions which will go on lashing me now until I have at least tried to fulfil them.
I am going to-day to give my last sitting to Lawrence, 623 and we were counting on the Major's coming to look at the portrait, and judge of it. I hope it will be satisfactory, for I am quite set against going through the same process a second time.
We are a little distracted just now with the prospect of removal from our present house, which some obliging people have at last come to take off our hands.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
J. Blackwood Esq.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 August 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/92746