GHL to Alexander Main, London, 16 April 1872
Title
GHL to Alexander Main, London, 16 April 1872
Title
GHL to Alexander Main, London, 16 April 1872
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Alexander Main
Date(s)
- 1872-04-16
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Alexander Main, London, 16 April 1872
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Tuesday 16th April 72.
My dear Main
Charles yesterday brought me the enclosed photo for you. The delay in sending it arose from his stock having been exhausted.
The other day a very celebrated man and great admirer of G. Eliot told me that his dislike to books of extracts had made him feel almost savage at the announcement of the "Sayings," but that happening to take it up at the house of a friend he was so much struck with it as forthwith to order it. "Since then it has been my companion." He made many inquiries about you -- and now you may like to know his name -- it is Owen Jones.
Your letters gave me great pleasure, as you will have supposed; I seem to hear an echo of my own youth in them every now and then; and when I don't hear that I am interested to see the young soul impregnating with its passion the thought of favourite writers. What especially strikes me in your letters is that the fervor never leads you wrong; which fervor is apt to do, in spite of its sharpening the insight, for it sometimes leads to over-seeing and over-refining. I was particularly pleased with the passage in your letter the other day about Heaven; and in the one today about Dickens and Little Nell. I too abominate Little Nell!
As to the "report" you mentioned -- thank you for not letting it come under her eye. (By the way, your first letter arrived at breakfast and the second 513 three hours after -- so if you remember the times you posted both you may always send to me with good chance of her not seeing the letter) -- But for itself I have this to say. Newspapers can neither make nor mar -- therefore I pay very little attention to them; and unless the question touched one's personal honour or sense of duty nothing that could be said would extort a contradiction from me. We have both of us ill-wishers -- and besides these there are the careless scribblers -- Let both scribble what they please! For your own private ear I may say that although the sale has been less by two or three thousand than I expected it has been very large and quite up to Blackwood's expectation; and as to other success we can't judge -- all those who come near enough to us to be allowed to speak of the book are naturally of the public for whom it is intended. What the outsiders think or say I neither know nor care.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Tuesday 16th April 72.
My dear Main
Charles yesterday brought me the enclosed photo for you. The delay in sending it arose from his stock having been exhausted.
The other day a very celebrated man and great admirer of G. Eliot told me that his dislike to books of extracts had made him feel almost savage at the announcement of the "Sayings," but that happening to take it up at the house of a friend he was so much struck with it as forthwith to order it. "Since then it has been my companion." He made many inquiries about you -- and now you may like to know his name -- it is Owen Jones.
Your letters gave me great pleasure, as you will have supposed; I seem to hear an echo of my own youth in them every now and then; and when I don't hear that I am interested to see the young soul impregnating with its passion the thought of favourite writers. What especially strikes me in your letters is that the fervor never leads you wrong; which fervor is apt to do, in spite of its sharpening the insight, for it sometimes leads to over-seeing and over-refining. I was particularly pleased with the passage in your letter the other day about Heaven; and in the one today about Dickens and Little Nell. I too abominate Little Nell!
As to the "report" you mentioned -- thank you for not letting it come under her eye. (By the way, your first letter arrived at breakfast and the second 513 three hours after -- so if you remember the times you posted both you may always send to me with good chance of her not seeing the letter) -- But for itself I have this to say. Newspapers can neither make nor mar -- therefore I pay very little attention to them; and unless the question touched one's personal honour or sense of duty nothing that could be said would extort a contradiction from me. We have both of us ill-wishers -- and besides these there are the careless scribblers -- Let both scribble what they please! For your own private ear I may say that although the sale has been less by two or three thousand than I expected it has been very large and quite up to Blackwood's expectation; and as to other success we can't judge -- all those who come near enough to us to be allowed to speak of the book are naturally of the public for whom it is intended. What the outsiders think or say I neither know nor care.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Alexander Main, London, 16 April 1872, 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/94409