GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, [23? August? 1857]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, [23? August? 1857]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, [23? August? 1857]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1857-08-23
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, [23? August? 1857]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Endorsed: Sep. Hitherto unpublished.
Park Shot | Sunday.
My dear Blackwood
G.E. has sent back his proof altered, and I now send it on to you, with nothing further to add except that I think the alterations improvements. What you say 958 about the hacknied nature of the clergyman's story is perfectly true; and it appears all the more hacknied because the rest of the tale is so entirely original; but the vaguer such a story, the more hacknied it would necessarily appear; details give an air of reality, and I could have wished G.E. had been more detailed.
I don't know how you find Janet's story affect people in general, but to me it seems singularly powerful and pathetic. My sympathies are not easily enlisted on the side of an Evangelical curate and a woman with "spiritual" weaknesses; nevertheless Tryan affects me, as if the real man were before me, and Janet redeems her weakness by her goodness. One feels the want of a larger canvas so as to bring out those admirable figures, Old Mr. Jerome -- the Linnets -- and the rest; but that is the drawback in all short stories.
By the way G.E. begs me to ask you not to draw a checque again for George Eliot, as it will be revealing to his banker who George E. really is.
I am hard at work revising and adding to Sea-Side Studies. In your estimate don't leave out the paper on Sea Anemones which will of course find its place.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Endorsed: Sep. Hitherto unpublished.
Park Shot | Sunday.
My dear Blackwood
G.E. has sent back his proof altered, and I now send it on to you, with nothing further to add except that I think the alterations improvements. What you say 958 about the hacknied nature of the clergyman's story is perfectly true; and it appears all the more hacknied because the rest of the tale is so entirely original; but the vaguer such a story, the more hacknied it would necessarily appear; details give an air of reality, and I could have wished G.E. had been more detailed.
I don't know how you find Janet's story affect people in general, but to me it seems singularly powerful and pathetic. My sympathies are not easily enlisted on the side of an Evangelical curate and a woman with "spiritual" weaknesses; nevertheless Tryan affects me, as if the real man were before me, and Janet redeems her weakness by her goodness. One feels the want of a larger canvas so as to bring out those admirable figures, Old Mr. Jerome -- the Linnets -- and the rest; but that is the drawback in all short stories.
By the way G.E. begs me to ask you not to draw a checque again for George Eliot, as it will be revealing to his banker who George E. really is.
I am hard at work revising and adding to Sea-Side Studies. In your estimate don't leave out the paper on Sea Anemones which will of course find its place.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, [23? August? 1857], 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/94729