MARY ANN EVANS, "George Eliot" (1819-80)

細節

MARY ANN EVANS, "George Eliot" (1819-80)
A 4-page autograph letter, signed "Mary Ann Evans" horizontally across final page, 12°, dated Rosehil, Tuesday [with date "Dec. 3 1850" added horizontally in blue ink across the opening lines of text], to the publisher, [Frederic] Chapman, referring to the problems of translating Eugène Sue's Les Mystères du Peuple into English, and saying how her enjoyment of one of Sue's stories was spoiled by "a hideous man" who got into her carriage on the journey to Rosehil.
"A novel in eight volumes is rather a formidable affair for both publisher and reader," she begins, "you know of course that the "Mystères du Peuple" is written in advocacy of communication & I think that you know too that Eugène Sue is more than sensuous -- he is sensual in many of his descriptions. The respectable translation of the Mysteries of Paris was expurgated to suit English taste, & I dare say the same process would be necessary with any other "Mysteries" of which Eugène Sue was the high priest."
She continues in the second paragraph: "I should think you will hardly be inclined to undertake such a publication -- I wonder who it was that first published these expensive editions of the Mysteries of Paris and the Wandering Jew -- he would be the right person for Louis Blanc to apply to. Bien entendu that I should like to read the 'Mysteres du Peuple' ... The lady with the (?)sleeves left one at Watford & I was quite undisturbed until we reached Bletchley where a hideous man got into the carriage and showed an inclination to be talkative. I snubbed him duly ...." (small blue ink stain on final page)

拍品專文

Novelist Marie-Joseph Sue (1804-75), self-styled Eugène, was immensely popular for his sensational novels of Parisian low life. Les Mystères du peuple was published in 1849-56 and Les Mystères de Paris in 1842-3.

Frederic Chapman (1823-95), of Chapman and Hall, was an important friend to George Eliot, publishing her first two books, both translations from the German, in 1846 and 1854, and helping with the development of her early literary career. The frank nature of their relationship reveals itself in this letter, as does the way in which Chapman, in his turn, obviously valued George Eliot's professional opinion.