GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 6 October [1858]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 6 October [1858]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 6 October [1858]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1858-10-06
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 6 October [1858]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: '58. Brief extracts published: Cross, II, 64.
Richmond | October 6.
Dear Sara
Your letter came in time. Dr. Chapman announces that he will visit us tomorrow.
Thanks for the verses on Buckle. 1194
I'm afraid I feel a malicious delight in them, for he is a writer who inspires me with a personal dislike -- not to put too fine a point on it, he impresses me as an irreligious, conceited man.
Do not guess at authorship -- it is a bad speculation. I have not written a word in the Westminster. The article on German Novels is Mr. Lewes's, and my only contribution to it was reading the novels aloud after dinner. 1195
He very industriously translated and condensed the M'e4dchen von Treppi, 1196 though that sort of work is extremely irksome to him.
Tell Mr. Bray he need have no qualms of conscience about Buckle. We are glad that the volume should be doing service, not at present needing it ourselves.
We understand that there is a very unjustifiable treatment of Miss Parkes's pamphlet -- "Remarks on the Education of Girls" in the [National.] A misrepresentation -- so we are told -- of a passage in the part on [mental training] as if it were a recommendation for girls to read impure literature. 1197 There is not a purer minded creature in the world than Bessie Parkes -- not a woman more removed from vulgarity or laxity in all serious relations of life, and every just-minded person should enter a protest against this wanton mode of affixing a stigma on a writer who is clearly in earnest, whatever mistakes she may make in style or ideas. I mention it to you that if you see the National or hear any reference made to it you may be on your guard against accepting its representation.
I am sorry for Dr. Chapman's poverty which presses on him I fear, in a way to prevent a successful editing of the Review.
The article on Newman 1198 -- whose, I don't know, but my mind turned to Mr. Call as the writer -- is very industrious, but too impersonal and ex officio to inspire a strong interest, and it is a sad mistake to give the whole series of his books, flying from Spiritual religion to the Translation of Horace etc. -- as if it were intended to be a puff of Newman's writings from beginning to end. Happily the tone is too much that of a dissident expositor for the notion of a puff to exist in the minds of those who really read the article. But unfortunately the majority of people form their opinions without that preliminary. Long ago, I had offered to write about Newman but gave it up again.
Ever yours
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: '58. Brief extracts published: Cross, II, 64.
Richmond | October 6.
Dear Sara
Your letter came in time. Dr. Chapman announces that he will visit us tomorrow.
Thanks for the verses on Buckle. 1194
I'm afraid I feel a malicious delight in them, for he is a writer who inspires me with a personal dislike -- not to put too fine a point on it, he impresses me as an irreligious, conceited man.
Do not guess at authorship -- it is a bad speculation. I have not written a word in the Westminster. The article on German Novels is Mr. Lewes's, and my only contribution to it was reading the novels aloud after dinner. 1195
He very industriously translated and condensed the M'e4dchen von Treppi, 1196 though that sort of work is extremely irksome to him.
Tell Mr. Bray he need have no qualms of conscience about Buckle. We are glad that the volume should be doing service, not at present needing it ourselves.
We understand that there is a very unjustifiable treatment of Miss Parkes's pamphlet -- "Remarks on the Education of Girls" in the [National.] A misrepresentation -- so we are told -- of a passage in the part on [mental training] as if it were a recommendation for girls to read impure literature. 1197 There is not a purer minded creature in the world than Bessie Parkes -- not a woman more removed from vulgarity or laxity in all serious relations of life, and every just-minded person should enter a protest against this wanton mode of affixing a stigma on a writer who is clearly in earnest, whatever mistakes she may make in style or ideas. I mention it to you that if you see the National or hear any reference made to it you may be on your guard against accepting its representation.
I am sorry for Dr. Chapman's poverty which presses on him I fear, in a way to prevent a successful editing of the Review.
The article on Newman 1198 -- whose, I don't know, but my mind turned to Mr. Call as the writer -- is very industrious, but too impersonal and ex officio to inspire a strong interest, and it is a sad mistake to give the whole series of his books, flying from Spiritual religion to the Translation of Horace etc. -- as if it were intended to be a puff of Newman's writings from beginning to end. Happily the tone is too much that of a dissident expositor for the notion of a puff to exist in the minds of those who really read the article. But unfortunately the majority of people form their opinions without that preliminary. Long ago, I had offered to write about Newman but gave it up again.
Ever yours
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 6 October [1858], 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/94107