GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 August 1868]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 August 1868]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 August 1868]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1868-08-13
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 August 1868]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Thursday.
My dear Blackwood
Taking up my [Daily News] this morning I was agreeably surprised to find the very sympathetic and in some aspects excellent review of the [Gypsy,] and the guess I make as to its authorship accounts for the lateness of its appearance. I infer the writer to be one of the Eton Masters named Johnson 806 whom I don't know but know of and I know he occasionally reviews for the D.N. Pigott is away so it can't be by him. If it is Johnson the praise is the more valuable.
Last week I spent at Oxford at the Medical Association and not the least of my pleasures there was to hear the deeply reverential way in which men of eminence spoke of Mrs. Lewes's genius and the evidence they gave that her work had profoundly entered into their souls. Paget, 807 the great surgeon, and some lesser medical men spoke of her as the greatest genius -- male or female -- that we could boast of. The [Gypsy] I find deeply affects all men except reviewers, and I pity the man it does not affect.
It is interesting to know that [Aurora Leigh] 808 -- (I have seen Chapman and Hall's book, so this can be relied on) was thus printed and disposed of: November 1,000 copies, January a second 1,000 printed, and August 750. But we have sold 2,000 in little more than 2 months; nevertheless it is risky work printing large editions and I am better satisfied at the idea of 250 being printed.
I bought a third microscope on my way through Paris, and the nervous systems of my [humble] relations will have to pay the penalty thereof. I am as hard at work as this enervating weather will permit.
You were kind enough to say you would send Kinglake 809 -- a book not to be refused -- and as we neither of us have read (only dipped into) the 2 first volumes I shall make bold to beg these also that we may read the whole.
We were much amused at your account of your midnight visitors -- and the Bulldog who was an angel -- as all uncontaminated-by-man-bulldogs are!
[The rest of this letter has been cut away.]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Thursday.
My dear Blackwood
Taking up my [Daily News] this morning I was agreeably surprised to find the very sympathetic and in some aspects excellent review of the [Gypsy,] and the guess I make as to its authorship accounts for the lateness of its appearance. I infer the writer to be one of the Eton Masters named Johnson 806 whom I don't know but know of and I know he occasionally reviews for the D.N. Pigott is away so it can't be by him. If it is Johnson the praise is the more valuable.
Last week I spent at Oxford at the Medical Association and not the least of my pleasures there was to hear the deeply reverential way in which men of eminence spoke of Mrs. Lewes's genius and the evidence they gave that her work had profoundly entered into their souls. Paget, 807 the great surgeon, and some lesser medical men spoke of her as the greatest genius -- male or female -- that we could boast of. The [Gypsy] I find deeply affects all men except reviewers, and I pity the man it does not affect.
It is interesting to know that [Aurora Leigh] 808 -- (I have seen Chapman and Hall's book, so this can be relied on) was thus printed and disposed of: November 1,000 copies, January a second 1,000 printed, and August 750. But we have sold 2,000 in little more than 2 months; nevertheless it is risky work printing large editions and I am better satisfied at the idea of 250 being printed.
I bought a third microscope on my way through Paris, and the nervous systems of my [humble] relations will have to pay the penalty thereof. I am as hard at work as this enervating weather will permit.
You were kind enough to say you would send Kinglake 809 -- a book not to be refused -- and as we neither of us have read (only dipped into) the 2 first volumes I shall make bold to beg these also that we may read the whole.
We were much amused at your account of your midnight visitors -- and the Bulldog who was an angel -- as all uncontaminated-by-man-bulldogs are!
[The rest of this letter has been cut away.]
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, London, [13 August 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/94618