Volume I Part 25 (1/2)
I am delighted to receive your letter, and to look forward with confidence to having such a successor in August. I can honestly a.s.sure you that I never have been so pleased at heart in all my literary life, as I am in the proud thought of standing side by side with you before this great audience.
In regard of the story,[72] I have perfect faith in such a master-hand as yours; and I know that what such an artist feels to be terrible and original, is unquestionably so. You whet my interest by what you write of it to the utmost extent.
Believe me ever affectionately yours.
[Sidenote: The same.]
3, HANOVER TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, _Sunday, 28th April, 1861._
MY DEAR BULWER LYTTON,
My story will finish in the first week in August. Yours ought to begin in the last week of July, or the last week but one. Wilkie Collins will be at work to follow you. The publication has made a very great success with ”Great Expectations,” and could not present a finer time for you.
The question of length may be easily adjusted.
Of the misgiving you entertain I cannot of course judge until you give me leave to rush to the perusal. I swear that I never thought I had half so much self-denial as I have shown in this case! I think I shall come out at Exeter Hall as a choice vessel on the strength of it. In the meanwhile I have quickened the printer and told him to get on fast.
You cannot think how happy you make me by what you write of ”Great Expectations.” There is nothing like the pride of making such an effect on such a writer as you.
Ever faithfully.
[Sidenote: The same.]
3, HANOVER TERRACE, REGENT'S PARK, _Wednesday, 8th May, 1861._
MY DEAR BULWER LYTTON,
I am anxious to let you know that Mr. Frederic Lehmann, who is coming down to Knebworth to see you (with his sister Mrs. Benzon) is a particular friend of mine, for whom I have a very high and warm regard.
Although he will sufficiently enlist your sympathy on his own behalf, I am sure that you will not be the less interested in him because I am.
Ever faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: The same.]
3, HANOVER TERRACE, _Sunday, 12th May, 1861._
MY DEAR BULWER LYTTON,
I received your revised proofs only yesterday, and I sat down to read them last night. And before I say anything further I may tell you that I COULD NOT lay them aside, but was obliged to go on with them in my bedroom until I got into a very ghostly state indeed. This morning I have taken them again and have gone through them with the utmost attention.
Of the beauty and power of the writing I say not a word, or of its originality and boldness, or of its quite extraordinary constructive skill. I confine myself solely to your misgiving, and to the question whether there is any sufficient foundation for it.
On the last head I say, without the faintest hesitation, most decidedly there is NOT sufficient foundation for it. I do not share it in the least. I believe that the readers who have here given their minds (or perhaps had any to give) to those strange psychological mysteries in ourselves, of which we are all more or less conscious, will accept your wonders as curious weapons in the armoury of fiction, and will submit themselves to the Art with which said weapons are used. Even to that cla.s.s of intelligence the marvellous addresses itself from a very strong position; and that cla.s.s of intelligence is not accustomed to find the marvellous in such very powerful hands as yours. On more imaginative readers the tale will fall (or I am greatly mistaken) like a spell. By readers who combine some imagination, some scepticism, and some knowledge and learning, I hope it will be regarded as full of strange fancy and curious study, startling reflections of their own thoughts and speculations at odd times, and wonder which a master has a right to evoke. In the last point lies, to my thinking, the whole case. If you were the Magician's servant instead of the Magician, these potent spirits would get the better of you; but you _are_ the Magician, and they don't, and you make them serve your purpose.
Occasionally in the dialogue I see an expression here and there which might--always solely with a reference to your misgiving--be better away; and I think that the vision, to use the word for want of a better--in the museum, should be made a little less abstruse. I should not say that, if the sale of the journal was below the sale of _The Times_ newspaper; but as it is probably several thousands higher, I do. I would also suggest that after the t.i.tle we put the two words--A ROMANCE. It is an absurdly easy device for getting over your misgiving with the blockheads, but I think it would be an effective one. I don't, on looking at it, like the t.i.tle. Here are a few that have occurred to me.
”The Steel Casket.”
”The Lost Ma.n.u.script.”