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To Gertrude Mary Ireland Blackburne
Elderfield, Otterbourne, Winchester.
Feb 28th 1885

MS Princeton University, Parrish Collection

My dear Miss Blackburne

Thank you for the sight of this. I have sent the review on to Mr Shorthouse.2 That Glasgow paper must have clever people belonging to it, for they always make notices to the purpose3

I have sent the proof to the printers, and hope it will get in this next April number.

It is very interesting to see what Mr Shorthouse likes as his interpretation Artistically I think it was a great mistake of Lewes to keep adverse reviews back- for if they are ever so foolish and provoking and reviews are much less useful than they were when I began, they shew one’s mannerisms and blunders.4 And as to their stinging, one gets hardened and cares very little. Is your novel out? I have not heard of it, and I do not think you told me its name.5

Yours sincerely
C M Yonge

1Gertrude Ireland Blackburne (1861-1951), journalist, novelist and contributor to MP.
2Joseph Henry Shorthouse (1834-1903). Blackburne's review of his The Little Schoolmaster Mark (1884-5) appeared as 'A Conversation on Books' MP 3s 9 (April 1885) 368-75.
3In a footnote Blackburne cites 'a suggestive and appreciative review in a daily paper, (Glasgow News, Jan. 19,1885).'
4The fact that George Henry Lewes had carefully guarded George Eliot from the sight of unfavourable reviews had recently been revealed in J. W. Cross, George Eliot's Life (1885).
5CMY's 1901 reference to Blackburne's novel Zig-Zag (1885) suggests that she thought it dangerously liberal.

Cite this letter


The Letters of Charlotte Mary Yonge(1823-1901) edited by Charlotte Mitchell, Ellen Jordan and Helen Schinske.

URL to this Letter is: https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/yonge/2800/to-gertrude-mary-ireland-blackburnef

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