GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 November 1872
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 November 1872
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 November 1872
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1872-11-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 November 1872
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 72.
My dear Blackwood
Your letter and the checque for 100 and Bill for 25 £ from Melbourne and Holland duly arrived.
We were indeed pleased to hear that you had shaken off your indisposition and were now in good case to face -- empty printing offices and empty authors! Would you take on a Union Man for Maga -- as a contributor?
You seem exactly to feel with us about Forster's Life of Dickens which is surely a lasting injury to his friend whom it presents in a constant state of rouge and footlights.
Mrs. Lewes has got rid of her cold -- but is suffering now (silently, as Mrs. Casaubon would) under an oppression of marital m.s. with no permission to "omit the second excursus on Crete." 639 However she is doing as well as could be expected, and yesterday got through her visitors (18 of them, mostly women) with great spirit. 640
[Everybody] seems greatly agog as to how Middlemarch will end and Mrs. Lewes feels perfectly sure that everybody will be disappointed. The book seems to have produced a profound impression on all who like it. Sunday week a West End clergyman alluded to it in his sermon on the Prophet Hosea in these words: "Many of you no doubt have read the work which that great teacher George Eliot is now publishing and have shuddered as I shuddered at the awful dissection of a guilty conscience. Well, that is what I mean by the prophetic spirit." 641 Plucky, wasn't it? I quote Rogers and say "But the man is right, you know."
By this post I send you all the revise proofs we have. In two parcels.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. L.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 72.
My dear Blackwood
Your letter and the checque for 100 and Bill for 25 £ from Melbourne and Holland duly arrived.
We were indeed pleased to hear that you had shaken off your indisposition and were now in good case to face -- empty printing offices and empty authors! Would you take on a Union Man for Maga -- as a contributor?
You seem exactly to feel with us about Forster's Life of Dickens which is surely a lasting injury to his friend whom it presents in a constant state of rouge and footlights.
Mrs. Lewes has got rid of her cold -- but is suffering now (silently, as Mrs. Casaubon would) under an oppression of marital m.s. with no permission to "omit the second excursus on Crete." 639 However she is doing as well as could be expected, and yesterday got through her visitors (18 of them, mostly women) with great spirit. 640
[Everybody] seems greatly agog as to how Middlemarch will end and Mrs. Lewes feels perfectly sure that everybody will be disappointed. The book seems to have produced a profound impression on all who like it. Sunday week a West End clergyman alluded to it in his sermon on the Prophet Hosea in these words: "Many of you no doubt have read the work which that great teacher George Eliot is now publishing and have shuddered as I shuddered at the awful dissection of a guilty conscience. Well, that is what I mean by the prophetic spirit." 641 Plucky, wasn't it? I quote Rogers and say "But the man is right, you know."
By this post I send you all the revise proofs we have. In two parcels.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 November 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/94692