GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, 6 August [1857]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, 6 August [1857]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, 6 August [1857]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1857-08-06
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, 6 August [1857]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Park Shot | Richmond | 6th August.
Dear Blackwood
Magas and the double checque arrived in due course, for which thanks. I shall send your letter to G.E. with the [filthy lucre.] 947 It will please him to have pleased you, for he was immovably and disagreeably possessed with the idea that you didn't like the story. Genus irritabile! Now in my buoyant confidence I am most immovably possessed with the idea that you do like the papers I send you -- or else you wouldn't publish them pour mes beaux yeux -- and I try in vain to give him some of my hopefulness, but Nature is too strong. She has made him diffident, and d'e9fiant (the French, not the English word of that aspect) of praise; and no sooner does anything not praise come than he says "There, you see I was right!" So he will hug your letter, for he is obstinate in cleaving to what he has written, and really thinks it fine though he can't think others will think so.
Richmond is not Jersey, tant s'en faut; neither, however, is it London. I went to see Ristori in Medea 948 and although I got a headache, I got it cheap. What a superb creature it is! Did you fall in love with her? I was disappointed with her Lady Macbeth -- the first part I saw her in -- but Medea surpassed all expectation.
Are you coming to London? I hope it won't be towards the end of this month, as then I shall have run away to Switzerland to see my boys, whom I have not seen for 12 months. As you are a father, I needn't say more. Ever my dear Blackwood
Yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Park Shot | Richmond | 6th August.
Dear Blackwood
Magas and the double checque arrived in due course, for which thanks. I shall send your letter to G.E. with the [filthy lucre.] 947 It will please him to have pleased you, for he was immovably and disagreeably possessed with the idea that you didn't like the story. Genus irritabile! Now in my buoyant confidence I am most immovably possessed with the idea that you do like the papers I send you -- or else you wouldn't publish them pour mes beaux yeux -- and I try in vain to give him some of my hopefulness, but Nature is too strong. She has made him diffident, and d'e9fiant (the French, not the English word of that aspect) of praise; and no sooner does anything not praise come than he says "There, you see I was right!" So he will hug your letter, for he is obstinate in cleaving to what he has written, and really thinks it fine though he can't think others will think so.
Richmond is not Jersey, tant s'en faut; neither, however, is it London. I went to see Ristori in Medea 948 and although I got a headache, I got it cheap. What a superb creature it is! Did you fall in love with her? I was disappointed with her Lady Macbeth -- the first part I saw her in -- but Medea surpassed all expectation.
Are you coming to London? I hope it won't be towards the end of this month, as then I shall have run away to Switzerland to see my boys, whom I have not seen for 12 months. As you are a father, I needn't say more. Ever my dear Blackwood
Yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, Richmond, 6 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/94759