E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Andrea Ball, and the
Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
1884
The publication of a new edition of this work permits me to say that theessay on "The Lady Novelists," quoted in the seventh chapter, was writtenby George Henry Lewes. Its opinions, however, are substantially those ofGeorge Eliot, and they will be found in harmony with her own words.Confessing to the error, I yet venture to let the quotations, and thecomments on them, stand as at first made. The three poems mentioned on page75, were among the latest of the productions of George Eliot's pen.
It has been suggested to me that I have not done perfect justice to GeorgeHenry Lewes, especially in what I say of his books on the Spanish drama andthe life of Goethe. I have carefully reconsidered what I wrote of him, andfind no occasion for any change of judgment, though two or three wordsmight properly give place to others of a more appreciative meaning.
My book has met with much greater praise than I could have expected. Itserrors, I have no doubt, are quite numerous enough; and yet I venture tothink the main thought of the book is correct.
The poet and the novelist write largely out of personal experience, andmust give expression to the effects of their own history. What they haveseen and felt, gives shape and tone to what they write; that which isnearest their own hearts is poured forth in their books. To ignore theseinfluences is to overlook a better part of what they write, and is often tolose the explanation of many features of their work. Shakspere is one ofthose who are of no time or place, whose words gain no added meaning inview of what he was and how he lived; but it is not so with a great numberof the best and most inspiring writers. The era in which they lived, theintellectual surroundings afforded them by their country and generation,the subtle phases of sentiment and aspiration of their immediate time andplace, are all essential to a true appreciation of their books. It is so