GE to William Blackwood, London, 24 September 1868
Title
GE to William Blackwood, London, 24 September 1868
Title
GE to William Blackwood, London, 24 September 1868
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
William Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1868-09-24
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to William Blackwood, London, 24 September 1868
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 58-60.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 24. 68.
My dear Sir
Your letter gave an additional gusto to my tea and toast this morning. The greater confidence of the trade in subscribing for the 2d edition 814 is on several grounds a satisfactory indication, but, as you observe, we shall be still better pleased to know that the copies are not slumbering on the counters but having an active life in the hands of readers.
I am now going carefully through the poem for the sake of correction.
I have read it through once and have at present found some ten or twelve small alterations to be added to those already made. But I shall go through it again more than once, for I wish to be able to put "revised" to the third edition, and to leave nothing that my conscience is not ready to swear by. I think it will be desirable for me to see proofs. It is possible in many closely consecutive readings not to see errors which strike one immediately on taking up the pages after a good long interval.
We are feeling much obliged for a copy of Kinglake, which I am reading aloud to Mr. Lewes as a part of our evening's entertainment and edification, beginning again from the beginning.
You are less fortunate than we are, if your fine weather has departed. This week we have had perfect autumnal days, though last week when we were in Yorkshire we also thought that the time of outside chills and inside fires was beginning. We do not often see a place which is a good foil for London, but certainly Leeds is in a lower circle of the great-town-Inferno.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
If there were no good reason against it, I should like the colour of the next edition of the S. G. to be changed for a deep mellow red, 815 like Munro's Lucretius 816 or Col. Hamley's "Operations of War."
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 58-60.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 24. 68.
My dear Sir
Your letter gave an additional gusto to my tea and toast this morning. The greater confidence of the trade in subscribing for the 2d edition 814 is on several grounds a satisfactory indication, but, as you observe, we shall be still better pleased to know that the copies are not slumbering on the counters but having an active life in the hands of readers.
I am now going carefully through the poem for the sake of correction.
I have read it through once and have at present found some ten or twelve small alterations to be added to those already made. But I shall go through it again more than once, for I wish to be able to put "revised" to the third edition, and to leave nothing that my conscience is not ready to swear by. I think it will be desirable for me to see proofs. It is possible in many closely consecutive readings not to see errors which strike one immediately on taking up the pages after a good long interval.
We are feeling much obliged for a copy of Kinglake, which I am reading aloud to Mr. Lewes as a part of our evening's entertainment and edification, beginning again from the beginning.
You are less fortunate than we are, if your fine weather has departed. This week we have had perfect autumnal days, though last week when we were in Yorkshire we also thought that the time of outside chills and inside fires was beginning. We do not often see a place which is a good foil for London, but certainly Leeds is in a lower circle of the great-town-Inferno.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
If there were no good reason against it, I should like the colour of the next edition of the S. G. to be changed for a deep mellow red, 815 like Munro's Lucretius 816 or Col. Hamley's "Operations of War."
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to William Blackwood, London, 24 September 1868, 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/94199