GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 23 April [1862]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 23 April [1862]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 23 April [1862]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1862-04-23
Place
Dorking
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 23 April [1862]
MS: Coventry City Libraries. Extracts published: B. C. Williams, George Eliot, New York, 1936, p. 198, dated 1863.
Parsonage House | Station Road | Dorking, | April 23.
Dear Sara
Mr. Lewes's words 'e0 propos of M'fcller are contained in an article entitled "A Box of Books" in the April (this current) number of Blackwood. 50 The article on Buckle's Scientific errors to which you refer, was also written by him. 51
I am NOT the author of the Chronicles of Carlingford. They are written by Mrs. Oliphant, author of "Margaret Maitland" etc. etc. etc. 52 A little reflection might, one would think, suggest that when a name is precisely the highest-priced thing in literature, any one who has a name will not, except when there is some strong motive for mystification, throw away the advantages of that name. I wrote anonymously while I was an unknown author, but I shall never, I believe, write anonymously again. I have not read the "Chronicles of Carlingford" but from what Mr. Lewes tells me, they must represent the Dissenters in a very different spirit from anything that has appeared in my books. And on this ground -- namely, the desire only to be responsible for views and feelings that one really shares, and again, to prevent others from being made responsible for one's own doings -- quite apart from the monetary question, I should not, without important reasons, put forth anything that was not virtually declared to be mine.
Mrs. Cash's statement is a fair specimen of the value carried by such ex post facto memories in relation to authorship. I can recall no "revelations" she ever made to me. And certainly no dissenting life I ever came in contact with in the provinces, could furnish an example of a dissenting minister being invited to visit her by a lady of title on a first interview in a shop. 53
But it is an ordinary weakness of human nature for each reader who happens to have a little personal knowledge of an author, to suppose that his book must be capable of thorough explanation by that personal knowledge. For example, an old acquaintance of Mr. Lewes's who has never seen me, told him he might well like Adam Bede the best of my books, because there was so much of his own character in Adam! Surely the force of human folly can no further go in this direction. But no number of mistakes seems to make people more modest in such matters. Unhappily the conceit is too often backed up by a little dishonesty: for example, Dr. Chapman, after learning from a private source 54 that I was the writer of Adam Bede, and on that ground pronouncing in the W. R. that it was probably a woman's work, allowed the writer on "The Mill" to begin his article with an assumption of superior acuteness in the Review as the first detector of that fact! And the very people who quarrelled on behalf of Liggins were those who turned round and said they saw the proofs of a woman's hand.
But Requiescat in pace. You know I do not willingly encourage these ghosts of the past to haunt me -- that I do not willingly write or speak about my books. And I should tell you by way of interesting you in Mrs. Oliphant, that she is a widow with a family of six children 55 and does a perfectly stupendous amount of work of all sorts -- translation and article writing and everything literary. I am glad to think you enjoy the retrospect of your outing. Love to all, from your affectionate
Marian E. Lewes.
MS: Coventry City Libraries. Extracts published: B. C. Williams, George Eliot, New York, 1936, p. 198, dated 1863.
Parsonage House | Station Road | Dorking, | April 23.
Dear Sara
Mr. Lewes's words 'e0 propos of M'fcller are contained in an article entitled "A Box of Books" in the April (this current) number of Blackwood. 50 The article on Buckle's Scientific errors to which you refer, was also written by him. 51
I am NOT the author of the Chronicles of Carlingford. They are written by Mrs. Oliphant, author of "Margaret Maitland" etc. etc. etc. 52 A little reflection might, one would think, suggest that when a name is precisely the highest-priced thing in literature, any one who has a name will not, except when there is some strong motive for mystification, throw away the advantages of that name. I wrote anonymously while I was an unknown author, but I shall never, I believe, write anonymously again. I have not read the "Chronicles of Carlingford" but from what Mr. Lewes tells me, they must represent the Dissenters in a very different spirit from anything that has appeared in my books. And on this ground -- namely, the desire only to be responsible for views and feelings that one really shares, and again, to prevent others from being made responsible for one's own doings -- quite apart from the monetary question, I should not, without important reasons, put forth anything that was not virtually declared to be mine.
Mrs. Cash's statement is a fair specimen of the value carried by such ex post facto memories in relation to authorship. I can recall no "revelations" she ever made to me. And certainly no dissenting life I ever came in contact with in the provinces, could furnish an example of a dissenting minister being invited to visit her by a lady of title on a first interview in a shop. 53
But it is an ordinary weakness of human nature for each reader who happens to have a little personal knowledge of an author, to suppose that his book must be capable of thorough explanation by that personal knowledge. For example, an old acquaintance of Mr. Lewes's who has never seen me, told him he might well like Adam Bede the best of my books, because there was so much of his own character in Adam! Surely the force of human folly can no further go in this direction. But no number of mistakes seems to make people more modest in such matters. Unhappily the conceit is too often backed up by a little dishonesty: for example, Dr. Chapman, after learning from a private source 54 that I was the writer of Adam Bede, and on that ground pronouncing in the W. R. that it was probably a woman's work, allowed the writer on "The Mill" to begin his article with an assumption of superior acuteness in the Review as the first detector of that fact! And the very people who quarrelled on behalf of Liggins were those who turned round and said they saw the proofs of a woman's hand.
But Requiescat in pace. You know I do not willingly encourage these ghosts of the past to haunt me -- that I do not willingly write or speak about my books. And I should tell you by way of interesting you in Mrs. Oliphant, that she is a widow with a family of six children 55 and does a perfectly stupendous amount of work of all sorts -- translation and article writing and everything literary. I am glad to think you enjoy the retrospect of your outing. Love to all, from your affectionate
Marian E. Lewes.
Signature
Marian E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Dorking, 23 April [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/93886