John Blackwood to GE, London, 25 May 1875
Title
John Blackwood to GE, London, 25 May 1875
Title
John Blackwood to GE, London, 25 May 1875
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1875-05-25
Place
London
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GE, London, 25 May 1875
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: John Blackwood, pp. 391-392.
The Burlington | May 25/75.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
Reading the whole and rereading many parts of the first volume of Daniel Deronda has more than confirmed the admiration and delight with which I wrote and spoke to you after my first happy sitting over your M.S. That first night I really felt like a glutton dallying over his feast and not reading at all with my usual rapid stride.
The first scene in the dreary gorgeous German gambling saloon with the gamblers all looking so like each other about the eyes and mouth is to the life, and poor Gwendolen's "enraged resistance" 249 is so true. Her want of early associations with home and the very "stars" a part of it is beautifully touched. 250 Mr. Gascoigne's pleasant easy tone that made the world "a manageable place of residence" 251 is very fine.
Gwendolen seeing Mrs. Arrowpoint's folly and not perceiving that she was showing her own hand to the old lady is so like a clever young creature. 252 I did not know what a hold the mermaid witch had got of me until I felt inclined to kick Herr Klessmer for his criticism on her singing 253 and I did not forgive him until I saw him with his hat "on his hair" 254 when a laugh took away all angry feeling. I knew what must happen to Rex but I was very sorry for him when the blow came 255 and her tears afterwards give me a hope that her creator is going to be merciful to the witch. She is a fascinating witch and I shall not be able to help feeling for her if she does get into "a swamp, satin shoes" and all. She had "no objections to be adored" 256 and was hardly entitled to the feeling. That is a magnificent illustration of yours about circumstances weighing upon characters such as hers like the weather upon the Harvests.
There is something very impressive in the way that fear froze that wild wilful heart on the sudden fall of the pannel and disclosure of that horrid picture. 257
The glimpse of the little blacksmith 258 who came to the help of Rex is a perfect picture. I know the little rascal as well as if I had been in the habit of giving him sixpences for years.
Ladies' necks like "leisurely lilies if they took to motion" 259 is a singularly happy idea. I am afraid there are few necks like that but we have all seen some.
Grandcourt is a most original character and he and Deronda promise to be a grand contrast in your picture. Gwendolen takes Grandcourt up admirably about "pleasures and follies left off" 260 and his sudden fit of numbness when he thinks he is within certain reach of his object is so true to nature.
There is somewhere as passage about false air of daemonic strength in commonplace unregulated people who know not how to direct their force that has made a great impression on me, but if I tried to refer to all the passages that have done that I should never finish my letter, as when they recur to me I turn to the M.S. and pass some time reading them and the context.
You tell the Tale of Deronda's goodness and that of the stray Jewish Maid so straightly and so simply that no feeling of doubt or improbability arises, and I quite agree with Mrs. Mer[r]ick that Miriam's mother must have been good, as "wheaten bread does not come from naught." 261 Sir Hugo is always good and his placid reflections upon good birth like those of a man after a good dinner contrast happily with Deronda's sensitive but terrible fears on that subject. 262 That "grim walled slice of a house" 263 that the Merricks have is a happy and consoling thought in the midst of the wilderness of grim looking small houses that really cons[t]itute London. How often one has looked at them with a kind of shuddering pain as to what life could be to the inhabitants, but you have given an interior that leavens the whole mass.
Again I beg to congratulate you on this most auspicious opening of another immortal work 264 and believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: John Blackwood, pp. 391-392.
The Burlington | May 25/75.
My Dear Mrs. Lewes
Reading the whole and rereading many parts of the first volume of Daniel Deronda has more than confirmed the admiration and delight with which I wrote and spoke to you after my first happy sitting over your M.S. That first night I really felt like a glutton dallying over his feast and not reading at all with my usual rapid stride.
The first scene in the dreary gorgeous German gambling saloon with the gamblers all looking so like each other about the eyes and mouth is to the life, and poor Gwendolen's "enraged resistance" 249 is so true. Her want of early associations with home and the very "stars" a part of it is beautifully touched. 250 Mr. Gascoigne's pleasant easy tone that made the world "a manageable place of residence" 251 is very fine.
Gwendolen seeing Mrs. Arrowpoint's folly and not perceiving that she was showing her own hand to the old lady is so like a clever young creature. 252 I did not know what a hold the mermaid witch had got of me until I felt inclined to kick Herr Klessmer for his criticism on her singing 253 and I did not forgive him until I saw him with his hat "on his hair" 254 when a laugh took away all angry feeling. I knew what must happen to Rex but I was very sorry for him when the blow came 255 and her tears afterwards give me a hope that her creator is going to be merciful to the witch. She is a fascinating witch and I shall not be able to help feeling for her if she does get into "a swamp, satin shoes" and all. She had "no objections to be adored" 256 and was hardly entitled to the feeling. That is a magnificent illustration of yours about circumstances weighing upon characters such as hers like the weather upon the Harvests.
There is something very impressive in the way that fear froze that wild wilful heart on the sudden fall of the pannel and disclosure of that horrid picture. 257
The glimpse of the little blacksmith 258 who came to the help of Rex is a perfect picture. I know the little rascal as well as if I had been in the habit of giving him sixpences for years.
Ladies' necks like "leisurely lilies if they took to motion" 259 is a singularly happy idea. I am afraid there are few necks like that but we have all seen some.
Grandcourt is a most original character and he and Deronda promise to be a grand contrast in your picture. Gwendolen takes Grandcourt up admirably about "pleasures and follies left off" 260 and his sudden fit of numbness when he thinks he is within certain reach of his object is so true to nature.
There is somewhere as passage about false air of daemonic strength in commonplace unregulated people who know not how to direct their force that has made a great impression on me, but if I tried to refer to all the passages that have done that I should never finish my letter, as when they recur to me I turn to the M.S. and pass some time reading them and the context.
You tell the Tale of Deronda's goodness and that of the stray Jewish Maid so straightly and so simply that no feeling of doubt or improbability arises, and I quite agree with Mrs. Mer[r]ick that Miriam's mother must have been good, as "wheaten bread does not come from naught." 261 Sir Hugo is always good and his placid reflections upon good birth like those of a man after a good dinner contrast happily with Deronda's sensitive but terrible fears on that subject. 262 That "grim walled slice of a house" 263 that the Merricks have is a happy and consoling thought in the midst of the wilderness of grim looking small houses that really cons[t]itute London. How often one has looked at them with a kind of shuddering pain as to what life could be to the inhabitants, but you have given an interior that leavens the whole mass.
Again I beg to congratulate you on this most auspicious opening of another immortal work 264 and believe me
always yours truly
John Blackwood.
Signature
John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GE, London, 25 May 1875, 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/95312