GHL to John Blackwood, Munich, 5 May 1858
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Munich, 5 May 1858
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Munich, 5 May 1858
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1858-05-05
Place
Munich
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, Munich, 5 May 1858
MS: National Library of Scotland.
5 Luitpold Strasse, Munich | Wednesday 5 May 58.
My dear Blackwood
Herewith goes the proof of "Blood." I agree with you, in rereading it, that it is a little trying to the general reader, especially without the diagrams which would make it more intelligible; but, en revanche, every reader who is at all interested in the subject will find there a mass of interesting matter, such as he cannot easily get elsewhere. The next paper being purely historical 388 will not have the same obstacle to its popularity.
You do not say how the books are selling, so in your promised letter of gossip let that form an item. The more widely [Seaside Studies] is known the greater acceptance will Physiology of C. L. find, and it is as a [Herald] or [forerunner] that I regard the book.
We are in very comfortable lodgings here, and dine at the table d'hote like princes for 1/3 each, exclusive of wine. Munich contains enough to occupy us a month in mere "seeing," if we were bent on nothing else; but having our daily work to do we find it difficult to get the art and sights "done." Besides this we have the distraction of friends. The "Life of Goethe" has made so great an impression in Germany that its author finds himself in clover, everyone seeming to vie with everyone else in showing attention.
Some of the people here have world-celebrated names -- Liebig, Kaulbach the painter, and Martius 389 the traveller -- others, of smaller fame, are even more interesting. Liebig is charming, however, and we get on famously. He is at this moment absorbed in a new process, he has invented, of making mirrors with silver backs, instead of quicksilver. He has gone with me through the whole process, and the result is astounding: when you look in one of his mirrors and place an ordinary German mirror beside it, you seem to be looking at a living face and at a corpse. Liebig has also communicated to me some new discoveries in Agricultural Chemistry; but declares he has given up Physiology in despair. Tant mieux! Kaulbach we do not much admire although he is assuredly the greatest of their painters; he has given me a proof of his [Madhouse] which has a terrible Hogarthian power; and one of his new cartoons strikes us as fine -- but on the whole, our impression is that a man of remarkable talent has been ruined by German criticism.
The opera is very bad; the tenor outrageous, and the prima donna utterly German. But the orchestra is first rate, and the stalls only cost 2 francs each! The theatre also is poor so that we have not been there more than once.
E. begs his kind regards and believe me ever yours
G. H. L.
MS: National Library of Scotland.
5 Luitpold Strasse, Munich | Wednesday 5 May 58.
My dear Blackwood
Herewith goes the proof of "Blood." I agree with you, in rereading it, that it is a little trying to the general reader, especially without the diagrams which would make it more intelligible; but, en revanche, every reader who is at all interested in the subject will find there a mass of interesting matter, such as he cannot easily get elsewhere. The next paper being purely historical 388 will not have the same obstacle to its popularity.
You do not say how the books are selling, so in your promised letter of gossip let that form an item. The more widely [Seaside Studies] is known the greater acceptance will Physiology of C. L. find, and it is as a [Herald] or [forerunner] that I regard the book.
We are in very comfortable lodgings here, and dine at the table d'hote like princes for 1/3 each, exclusive of wine. Munich contains enough to occupy us a month in mere "seeing," if we were bent on nothing else; but having our daily work to do we find it difficult to get the art and sights "done." Besides this we have the distraction of friends. The "Life of Goethe" has made so great an impression in Germany that its author finds himself in clover, everyone seeming to vie with everyone else in showing attention.
Some of the people here have world-celebrated names -- Liebig, Kaulbach the painter, and Martius 389 the traveller -- others, of smaller fame, are even more interesting. Liebig is charming, however, and we get on famously. He is at this moment absorbed in a new process, he has invented, of making mirrors with silver backs, instead of quicksilver. He has gone with me through the whole process, and the result is astounding: when you look in one of his mirrors and place an ordinary German mirror beside it, you seem to be looking at a living face and at a corpse. Liebig has also communicated to me some new discoveries in Agricultural Chemistry; but declares he has given up Physiology in despair. Tant mieux! Kaulbach we do not much admire although he is assuredly the greatest of their painters; he has given me a proof of his [Madhouse] which has a terrible Hogarthian power; and one of his new cartoons strikes us as fine -- but on the whole, our impression is that a man of remarkable talent has been ruined by German criticism.
The opera is very bad; the tenor outrageous, and the prima donna utterly German. But the orchestra is first rate, and the stalls only cost 2 francs each! The theatre also is poor so that we have not been there more than once.
E. begs his kind regards and believe me ever yours
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, Munich, 5 May 1858, 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/94707