GHL to Richard Hengist Horne, London, 12 February 1866
Title
GHL to Richard Hengist Horne, London, 12 February 1866
Title
GHL to Richard Hengist Horne, London, 12 February 1866
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Richard Hengist Horne
Date(s)
- 1866-02-12
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Richard Hengist Horne, London, 12 February 1866
MS: University of Iowa. Envelope: R. H. Horne Esq. | &unknown;Blue Mountain | Victoria&unknown; | McGuires Cottages | Robe Street | St. Kilda | Australia. Postmark: LONDON NW | X | FE 15 | 66; KYNETON | AP 14 | 66; STREATHAM | AP 17 | 66 | VICTORIA; MELBOURNE | A | APX 18 | 66. Extract published: Books at Iowa, No. 18 (April 1973), p. 24.
The Fortnightly Review, | Office -- 193, Piccadilly.
2 February 1866.
My dear Horne
You must have strangely interpreted any thing Mary Gillies could have written to have twisted it into a statement that I declined to admit a review of Prometheus. 698 No review was ever proposed to me. No one has ever mentioned the poem to me by word or letter except Dr. Schmitz and Mary Gillies; and when Dr. Schmitz mentioned it to me he said you were very anxious about its reception. Therefore I told him as I told Mary Gillies that I could not notice it because I did not choose to give you pain and I could not write of it so as to give you pleasure. But in order that you might not suffer from my fastidiousness, I sent the poem to a distinguished contributor whom I knew to be a very warm admirer of [Orion], 699 and asked him to write either an article or a critical notice. He sent me word that he had tried to like it but couldn't, and excused himself from speaking of it. Since then I have thought it best to leave the poem alone and I still think so. This seems the general impression since I observe no notices of it in the journals.
You may imagine that it is not pleasant to have to say these things. But we all stumble at times; we have all our failures; and you have had your share of successes.
Your friends will be none the less delighted to welcome you back in England, because this poem has made no stir. 700 But you will find most of us strangely altered!
As for me I am a shadow of what I was -- dyspeptic and feeble; but I rub on from day to day, resolved to wear out rather than rust out. My eldest boy, as you know is married to Gertrude Hill. My second is trading and volunteering in Natal. My last is a farmer equipping himself for colonial life. As to my wife, whom you don't know in the flesh, she is a Mediaeval Saint with a grand genius. That's my budget!
Ever yours,
G. H. Lewes.
MS: University of Iowa. Envelope: R. H. Horne Esq. | &unknown;Blue Mountain | Victoria&unknown; | McGuires Cottages | Robe Street | St. Kilda | Australia. Postmark: LONDON NW | X | FE 15 | 66; KYNETON | AP 14 | 66; STREATHAM | AP 17 | 66 | VICTORIA; MELBOURNE | A | APX 18 | 66. Extract published: Books at Iowa, No. 18 (April 1973), p. 24.
The Fortnightly Review, | Office -- 193, Piccadilly.
2 February 1866.
My dear Horne
You must have strangely interpreted any thing Mary Gillies could have written to have twisted it into a statement that I declined to admit a review of Prometheus. 698 No review was ever proposed to me. No one has ever mentioned the poem to me by word or letter except Dr. Schmitz and Mary Gillies; and when Dr. Schmitz mentioned it to me he said you were very anxious about its reception. Therefore I told him as I told Mary Gillies that I could not notice it because I did not choose to give you pain and I could not write of it so as to give you pleasure. But in order that you might not suffer from my fastidiousness, I sent the poem to a distinguished contributor whom I knew to be a very warm admirer of [Orion], 699 and asked him to write either an article or a critical notice. He sent me word that he had tried to like it but couldn't, and excused himself from speaking of it. Since then I have thought it best to leave the poem alone and I still think so. This seems the general impression since I observe no notices of it in the journals.
You may imagine that it is not pleasant to have to say these things. But we all stumble at times; we have all our failures; and you have had your share of successes.
Your friends will be none the less delighted to welcome you back in England, because this poem has made no stir. 700 But you will find most of us strangely altered!
As for me I am a shadow of what I was -- dyspeptic and feeble; but I rub on from day to day, resolved to wear out rather than rust out. My eldest boy, as you know is married to Gertrude Hill. My second is trading and volunteering in Natal. My last is a farmer equipping himself for colonial life. As to my wife, whom you don't know in the flesh, she is a Mediaeval Saint with a grand genius. That's my budget!
Ever yours,
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Richard Hengist Horne, London, 12 February 1866, 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/94987