GE to William Blackwood, [Wandsworth], 6 May 1859
Title
GE to William Blackwood, [Wandsworth], 6 May 1859
Title
GE to William Blackwood, [Wandsworth], 6 May 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
William Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1859-05-06
Place
[Wandsworth]
Letter Content
GE to William Blackwood, [Wandsworth], 6 May 1859
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 107-108.
May 6. 59.
My dear Major Blackwood
I enclose a correction for the two-volume edition of "Adam" -- which I unhappily forgot until this morning.
You must not think me too soft-hearted when I tell you that it would make me uneasy to leave Mr. Anders without an assurance that his apology is accepted. "Who with repentance is not satisfied" 130 etc. -- that doctrine is bad for the sinning, but good for those sinned against. Will you oblige me by allowing a clerk to write something to this effect, in the name of the firm? -- "We are requested by George Eliot to state, in reply to your letter of the 16th, that he accepts your assurance that the publication of your letter to the Reviewer of "Adam Bede" in the "Times" was unintentional on your part."
Thank you for telling me the drift of the "Leader's" folly. I feared it might be something demanding a denial.
Yes -- I am assured now that "Adam Bede" was worth writing -- worth living through long years to write. But now it seems impossible to me that I shall ever write anything so good and true again. I have arrived at faith in the past, but not at faith in the future.
A friend in Algiers has found me out -- will "go to the stake on the assertion that I wrote Adam Bede" -- simply on the evidence of a few extracts. So far as I know, this is the first case of detection on purely internal evidence. But the secret is safe in that quarter.
I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again during some visit that you will pay to town before very long. It would do me good to have you shake me by the hand as the ascertained
George Eliot.
Major Blackwood.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, II, 107-108.
May 6. 59.
My dear Major Blackwood
I enclose a correction for the two-volume edition of "Adam" -- which I unhappily forgot until this morning.
You must not think me too soft-hearted when I tell you that it would make me uneasy to leave Mr. Anders without an assurance that his apology is accepted. "Who with repentance is not satisfied" 130 etc. -- that doctrine is bad for the sinning, but good for those sinned against. Will you oblige me by allowing a clerk to write something to this effect, in the name of the firm? -- "We are requested by George Eliot to state, in reply to your letter of the 16th, that he accepts your assurance that the publication of your letter to the Reviewer of "Adam Bede" in the "Times" was unintentional on your part."
Thank you for telling me the drift of the "Leader's" folly. I feared it might be something demanding a denial.
Yes -- I am assured now that "Adam Bede" was worth writing -- worth living through long years to write. But now it seems impossible to me that I shall ever write anything so good and true again. I have arrived at faith in the past, but not at faith in the future.
A friend in Algiers has found me out -- will "go to the stake on the assertion that I wrote Adam Bede" -- simply on the evidence of a few extracts. So far as I know, this is the first case of detection on purely internal evidence. But the secret is safe in that quarter.
I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again during some visit that you will pay to town before very long. It would do me good to have you shake me by the hand as the ascertained
George Eliot.
Major Blackwood.
Signature
George Eliot.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to William Blackwood, [Wandsworth], 6 May 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/94179