GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 1 May [1862]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 1 May [1862]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 1 May [1862]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1862-05-01
Place
Dorking
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 1 May [1862]
MS: Coventry City Libraries. Hitherto unpublished.
Parsonage House | Station Road, Dorking | May 1.
Dear Sara
I fear I wrote rather peevishly and irrelevantly to you the other day. Pray pardon it. I was not at all well, and three years ago, after the appearance of Adam Bede, my nerves were so jarred on the subject of my authorship, that I have never recovered the injury. The only remedy is the one I habitually observe -- to fling the subject as far away from me as possible and avoid either hearing or speaking of it. I only hope that when, in a moment of feverish headachiness I transgressed my own rule, I did not write anything which, from want of explanatory knowledge concerning my inward experience, you might misinterpret into irritation against you for your innocent and really sympathetic inquiry. When I give myself time to think, there is nothing I more scrupulously shun than such sending of enigmas by post.
For the rest, I shall be much obliged to you if you will take any opportunity that occurs of contradicting the report that I am the author of Mrs. Oliphant's stories. And, in general, you may be sure that whenever a fiction is mine it will bear the name of George Eliot, or at least be formally and officially announced as written by George Eliot. I am under no external pressure to write anything which there is no strong internal reason for me to write, and rather than publish anything with a precipitation which would deprive me of my inward warrant, I have refused the highest price ever offered for fiction. You will therefore be undisturbed in future by guesses and rumours which urge you, in your friendly sympathy, to send for back numbers of magazines, and groan over the effort to see all the virtues you desire in them. Of course every writer who produces an effect on the public suggests to others a choice of subjects or of manner which is a more or less conscious imitation and in some cases the inevitable result of a certain affinity.
I hope I have cleared up whatever my last letter left dark, and I am always your self-reproving affectionate friend
M. E. L.
We return to Blandford Square Monday.
MS: Coventry City Libraries. Hitherto unpublished.
Parsonage House | Station Road, Dorking | May 1.
Dear Sara
I fear I wrote rather peevishly and irrelevantly to you the other day. Pray pardon it. I was not at all well, and three years ago, after the appearance of Adam Bede, my nerves were so jarred on the subject of my authorship, that I have never recovered the injury. The only remedy is the one I habitually observe -- to fling the subject as far away from me as possible and avoid either hearing or speaking of it. I only hope that when, in a moment of feverish headachiness I transgressed my own rule, I did not write anything which, from want of explanatory knowledge concerning my inward experience, you might misinterpret into irritation against you for your innocent and really sympathetic inquiry. When I give myself time to think, there is nothing I more scrupulously shun than such sending of enigmas by post.
For the rest, I shall be much obliged to you if you will take any opportunity that occurs of contradicting the report that I am the author of Mrs. Oliphant's stories. And, in general, you may be sure that whenever a fiction is mine it will bear the name of George Eliot, or at least be formally and officially announced as written by George Eliot. I am under no external pressure to write anything which there is no strong internal reason for me to write, and rather than publish anything with a precipitation which would deprive me of my inward warrant, I have refused the highest price ever offered for fiction. You will therefore be undisturbed in future by guesses and rumours which urge you, in your friendly sympathy, to send for back numbers of magazines, and groan over the effort to see all the virtues you desire in them. Of course every writer who produces an effect on the public suggests to others a choice of subjects or of manner which is a more or less conscious imitation and in some cases the inevitable result of a certain affinity.
I hope I have cleared up whatever my last letter left dark, and I am always your self-reproving affectionate friend
M. E. L.
We return to Blandford Square Monday.
Signature
M. E. L.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 1 May [1862], 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/93885