George Eliot's Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals. Vol. 2 (of 3). George EliotЧитать онлайн книгу.
by the finely felt and finely expressed sympathy of the letter, that the iron mask of my incognito seems quite painful in forbidding me to tell Dickens how thoroughly his generous impulse has been appreciated. If you should have an opportunity of conveying this feeling of mine to him in any way, you would oblige me by doing so. By-the-bye, you probably remember sending me, some months ago, a letter from the Rev. Archer Gurney – a very warm, simple-spoken letter – praising me for qualities which I most of all care to be praised for. I should like to send him a copy of the "Scenes," since I could make no acknowledgment of his letter in any other way. I don't know his address, but perhaps Mr. Langford would be good enough to look it out in the Clergy List.
Journal, 1858.
Jan. 23.– There appeared a well-written and enthusiastic article on "Clerical Scenes" in the Statesman. We hear there was a poor article in the Globe– of feebly written praise – the previous week, but beyond this we have not yet heard of any notices from the press.
Jan. 26.– Came a very pleasant letter from Mrs. Carlyle, thanking the author of "Clerical Scenes" for the present of his book, praising it very highly, and saying that her husband had promised to read it when released from his mountain of history.
Letter from Mrs. Carlyle to George Eliot, 21st Jan. 1858.
"Dear Sir, – I have to thank you for a surprise, a pleasure, and a – consolation (!) all in one book! And I do thank you most sincerely. I cannot divine what inspired the good thought to send me your book; since (if the name on the title-page be your real name) it could not have been personal regard; there has never been a George Eliot among my friends or acquaintance. But neither, I am sure, could you divine the circumstances under which I should read the book, and the particular benefit it should confer on me! I read it – at least the first volume – during one of the most (physically) wretched nights of my life – sitting up in bed, unable to get a wink of sleep for fever and sore throat – and it helped me through that dreary night as well – better than the most sympathetic helpful friend watching by my bedside could have done!
"You will believe that the book needed to be something more than a 'new novel' for me; that I could at my years, and after so much reading, read it in positive torment, and be beguiled by it of the torment! that it needed to be the one sort of book, however named, that still takes hold of me, and that grows rarer every year – a human book – written out of the heart of a live man, not merely out of the brain of an author – full of tenderness and pathos, without a scrap of sentimentality, of sense without dogmatism, of earnestness without twaddle – a book that makes one feel friends at once and for always with the man or woman who wrote it!
"In guessing at why you gave me this good gift, I have thought amongst other things, 'Oh, perhaps it was a delicate way of presenting the novel to my husband, he being over head and ears in history.' If that was it, I compliment you on your tact! for my husband is much likelier to read the 'Scenes' on my responsibility than on a venture of his own – though, as a general rule, never opening a novel, he has engaged to read this one whenever he has some leisure from his present task.
"I hope to know some day if the person I am addressing bears any resemblance in external things to the idea I have conceived of him in my mind – a man of middle age, with a wife, from whom he has got those beautiful feminine touches in his book – a good many children, and a dog that he has as much fondness for as I have for my little Nero! For the rest – not just a clergyman, but brother or first cousin to a clergyman! How ridiculous all this may read beside the reality. Anyhow – I honestly confess I am very curious about you, and look forward with what Mr. Carlyle would call 'a good, healthy, genuine desire' to shaking hands with you some day. – In the meanwhile, I remain, your obliged
Journal, 1858.
Jan. 30.– Received a letter from Faraday, thanking me very gracefully for the present of the "Scenes." Blackwood mentions, in enclosing this letter, that Simpkin & Marshall have sent for twelve additional copies – the first sign of a move since the subscription. The other night we looked into the life of Charlotte Brontë, to see how long it was before "Jane Eyre" came into demand at the libraries, and we found it was not until six weeks after publication. It is just three weeks now since I heard news of the subscription for my book.
Letter from M. Faraday to George Eliot, 28th Jan. 1858.
"Sir, – I cannot resist the pleasure of thanking you for what I esteem a great kindness: the present of your thoughts embodied in the two volumes you have sent me. They have been, and will be again, a very pleasant relief from mental occupation among my own pursuits. Such rest I find at times not merely agreeable, but essential. – Again thanking you, I beg to remain, your very obliged servant,
"George Eliot, Esq., &c., &c."
Journal, 1858.
Feb. 3.– Gave up Miss Martineau's History last night, after reading some hundred pages in the second volume. She has a sentimental, rhetorical style in this history which is fatiguing and not instructive. But her history of the Reform movement is very interesting.
Feb. 4.– Yesterday brought the discouraging news, that though the book is much talked of, it moves very slowly. Finished the "Eumenides." Bessie Parkes has written asking me to contribute to the Englishwoman's Journal– a new monthly which, she says, "We are beginning with £1000, and great social interest."
Feb. 16.– To-day G. went into the City and saw Langford, for the sake of getting the latest news about our two books – his "Sea-side Studies" having been well launched about a fortnight or ten days ago, with a subscription of 800. He brought home good news. The "Clerical Scenes" are moving off at a moderate but steady pace. Langford remarked, that while the press had been uniformly favorable, not one critical notice had appeared. G. went to Parker's in the evening, and gathered a little gossip on the subject. Savage, author of the "Falcon Family," and now editor of the Examiner, said he was reading the "Scenes" – had read some of them already in Blackwood– but was now reading the volume. "G. Eliot was a writer of great merit." A barrister named Smythe said he had seen "the Bishop" reading them the other day. As a set-off against this, Mrs. Schlesinger "Couldn't bear the book." She is a regular novel reader; but hers is the first unfavorable opinion we have had.
Feb. 26.– We went into town for the sake of seeing Mr. and Mrs. Call, and having our photographs taken by Mayall.
Feb. 28.– Mr. John Blackwood called on us, having come to London for a few days only. He talked a good deal about the "Clerical Scenes" and George Eliot, and at last asked, "Well, am I to see George Eliot this time?" G. said, "Do you wish to see him?" "As he likes – I wish it to be quite spontaneous." I left the room, and G. following me a moment, I told him he might reveal me. Blackwood was kind, came back when he found he was too late for the train, and said he would come to Richmond again. He came on the following Friday and chatted very pleasantly – told us that Thackeray spoke highly of the "Scenes," and said they were not written by a woman. Mrs. Blackwood is sure they are not written by a woman. Mrs. Oliphant, the novelist, too, is confident on the same side. I gave Blackwood the MS. of my new novel, to the end of the second scene in the wood. He opened it, read the first page, and smiling, said, "This will do." We walked with him to Kew, and had a good deal of talk. Found, among other things, that he had lived two years in Italy when he was a youth, and that he admires Miss Austen.
Since I wrote these last notes several encouraging fragments of news about the "Scenes" have come to my ears – especially that Mrs. Owen Jones and her husband – two very different people – are equally enthusiastic about the book. But both have detected the woman.
Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, 2d March, 1858.
Perhaps we may go to Dresden, perhaps not: we leave room for the imprévu, which Louis Blanc found so sadly wanting in Mr. Morgan's millennial village. You are among the exceptional