GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 October 1859
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 October 1859
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 October 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1859-10-28
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 October 1859
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 139-140.
Holly Lodge, South Fields | Wandsworth | October 28. 59.
My dear Sir
I beg that you and Major Blackwood will accept my thanks for your proposal to give me a further share in the success of "Adam Bede," beyond the terms of our agreement, which are fulfilled by the second cheque for 'a3400, received this morning.
Neither you nor I ever calculated on half such a success, thinking that the book was too quiet and too unflattering to dominant fashions ever to be very popular. I hope that opinion of ours is a guarantee that there is nothing hollow or transient in the reception "Adam" has met with. Sometimes when I read a book which has had a great success and am unable to see any valid merits of an artistic kind to account for it, I am visited with a horrible alarm lest "Adam" too should ultimately sink into the same class of outworn admirations. But I always fall back on the fact that no shibboleth and no vanity is flattered by it, and that there is no novelty of mere form in it, which can have delighted simply by startling.
Mr. Lewes had written to you (to St. Andrews') about Newby's advertisement. 367 I wish it could be put a stop to without much trouble. People in the provinces, I fear, know no difference between "Newby" and "Blackwoods" and can't see the moral impossibility of the sequel being mine. As to literary impossibility, I imagine the "Bracebridges and Quirks" are capable of believing that Macaulay wrote "Coningsby." I should have thought the advertisement might be stopped by a mere letter to Newby threatening him with an injunction. That would be a private affair, not liable to Dixonian comments. 368 More trouble than that, perhaps, the injury is hardly worth. One wouldn't mind if the author of said sequel could be forced to put his name to it, as Reynolds did to "Pickwick Abroad." 369
Apropos of Pickwick, and quite entre nous, think a little kindly of Dickens on this ground: he has both written and spoken with the warmest, most generous admiration of "Adam."
As a bit of justice too, I must tell you that the friend 370 who caused me to make so much mauvais sang by his want of sympathy has come round to strong expression of even benefit from the reading of the book, which he has at last accomplished. I don't think he was conscious of the negations which wounded me; so we must forgive him his trespasses. But I am really too lengthy in my talk.
Ever yours truly
Marian Evans Lewes.
John Blackwood Esq.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 139-140.
Holly Lodge, South Fields | Wandsworth | October 28. 59.
My dear Sir
I beg that you and Major Blackwood will accept my thanks for your proposal to give me a further share in the success of "Adam Bede," beyond the terms of our agreement, which are fulfilled by the second cheque for 'a3400, received this morning.
Neither you nor I ever calculated on half such a success, thinking that the book was too quiet and too unflattering to dominant fashions ever to be very popular. I hope that opinion of ours is a guarantee that there is nothing hollow or transient in the reception "Adam" has met with. Sometimes when I read a book which has had a great success and am unable to see any valid merits of an artistic kind to account for it, I am visited with a horrible alarm lest "Adam" too should ultimately sink into the same class of outworn admirations. But I always fall back on the fact that no shibboleth and no vanity is flattered by it, and that there is no novelty of mere form in it, which can have delighted simply by startling.
Mr. Lewes had written to you (to St. Andrews') about Newby's advertisement. 367 I wish it could be put a stop to without much trouble. People in the provinces, I fear, know no difference between "Newby" and "Blackwoods" and can't see the moral impossibility of the sequel being mine. As to literary impossibility, I imagine the "Bracebridges and Quirks" are capable of believing that Macaulay wrote "Coningsby." I should have thought the advertisement might be stopped by a mere letter to Newby threatening him with an injunction. That would be a private affair, not liable to Dixonian comments. 368 More trouble than that, perhaps, the injury is hardly worth. One wouldn't mind if the author of said sequel could be forced to put his name to it, as Reynolds did to "Pickwick Abroad." 369
Apropos of Pickwick, and quite entre nous, think a little kindly of Dickens on this ground: he has both written and spoken with the warmest, most generous admiration of "Adam."
As a bit of justice too, I must tell you that the friend 370 who caused me to make so much mauvais sang by his want of sympathy has come round to strong expression of even benefit from the reading of the book, which he has at last accomplished. I don't think he was conscious of the negations which wounded me; so we must forgive him his trespasses. But I am really too lengthy in my talk.
Ever yours truly
Marian Evans Lewes.
John Blackwood Esq.
Signature
Marian Evans Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 28 October 1859, 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/92747