GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [23 March 1860]
Title
GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [23 March 1860]
Title
GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [23 March 1860]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1860-03-23
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [23 March 1860]
MS: Yale.
Holly Lodge | Friday.
My dear Bray
We start tomorrow morning and hope to be in Rome by Palm Sunday.
Knowing your real regard for Marian there is one point on [which] I wish to speak. You know how Gossip Report -- liar that she is -- busies herself with every one who has the misfortune of being famous; and you may imagine how eagerly people cite "friends of many years" as the authorities, for their legends. Unhappily friends -- when biographical -- have as little chance apparently of being accurate, as the merest strangers; yet who would question their authority, when the fact stated seems simple and patent? When George Combe, for instance, cited you as the authority 502 for saying that Marian was "self-educated" and a "farmer's" daughter the facts were simple -- and the authority seemed indisputable. Again it has come to our knowledge that you have said that Marian, when young, was "a regular boy," and joined in all boyish games -- and this was adduced as a reason why she could paint the psychology of boys so wonderfully as she has done in her new novel! I should have thought that any one who knew her as a woman would see that so timid a creature was little likely to have been a tomboy -- at any rate the fact that she "had been" one, was quite new to her. These points are trivial, but I mention them as samples of the liability to error, which even the oldest friends fall into; and it is only necessary I am sure to hint that unless she is to be gratified by seeing them in print, and hearing them in the reported gossip of the day, her friends should carefully abstain from any biographical statements -- of which they have not clear and immediate knowledge.
I am sure you will not misunderstand this appeal. It is open to every one to mention likings and dislikings, and personal details of which they have unequivocal knowledge; but biographical statements are different; and when they are made, those who made them must expect that their authority will be cited, and that the reports will finally reach the ears of the unhappy subject.
Ever faithfully yours
G. H. Lewes.
MS: Yale.
Holly Lodge | Friday.
My dear Bray
We start tomorrow morning and hope to be in Rome by Palm Sunday.
Knowing your real regard for Marian there is one point on [which] I wish to speak. You know how Gossip Report -- liar that she is -- busies herself with every one who has the misfortune of being famous; and you may imagine how eagerly people cite "friends of many years" as the authorities, for their legends. Unhappily friends -- when biographical -- have as little chance apparently of being accurate, as the merest strangers; yet who would question their authority, when the fact stated seems simple and patent? When George Combe, for instance, cited you as the authority 502 for saying that Marian was "self-educated" and a "farmer's" daughter the facts were simple -- and the authority seemed indisputable. Again it has come to our knowledge that you have said that Marian, when young, was "a regular boy," and joined in all boyish games -- and this was adduced as a reason why she could paint the psychology of boys so wonderfully as she has done in her new novel! I should have thought that any one who knew her as a woman would see that so timid a creature was little likely to have been a tomboy -- at any rate the fact that she "had been" one, was quite new to her. These points are trivial, but I mention them as samples of the liability to error, which even the oldest friends fall into; and it is only necessary I am sure to hint that unless she is to be gratified by seeing them in print, and hearing them in the reported gossip of the day, her friends should carefully abstain from any biographical statements -- of which they have not clear and immediate knowledge.
I am sure you will not misunderstand this appeal. It is open to every one to mention likings and dislikings, and personal details of which they have unequivocal knowledge; but biographical statements are different; and when they are made, those who made them must expect that their authority will be cited, and that the reports will finally reach the ears of the unhappy subject.
Ever faithfully yours
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [23 March 1860], 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/94443