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Visions and Revisions: Chapter Lxxxi of Middlemarch
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Literary genius in the nineteenth century was associated with “inspiration,” “spontaneity,” “emotion,” “imagination,” “the unconscious,” and other such indications of the nonratiocinative. Not all critics and writers of the century stressed all aspects of the nonratiocinative: some spoke of effect, using this cluster of words to denote the appearance of spontaneity, the freedom from classical or mechanical rules, the superiority of the mysterious, the individual, the unanalyzable in a work of art; others, especially those in that growing group whose concern was with the relationship between the writer and his work, stressed the irrational elements in the creation of literature. Among the latter there were differences in emphasis too: some stressed the whim of inspiration, its independence of the will; others stressed the frenzy, the ecstasy, the total unconsciousness of the act of literary creation. Among the latter there were those who further claimed that a passage created under the “spell” is never revised; for if this external or internal force is irrational because superior to reason, its results cannot then be submitted to the lesser pronouncements of rational judgment. Some even went so far as to combine all of the above into a single antiratiocinative aesthetic: the writer of true genius composes only when the whim of the muse dictates; he does not prepare himself for these moments of vision by planning or “calculating” his subject or approach; he is seized and illuminated, writing swiftly and effortlessly; he does not revise; the result gives the reader a comparable spontaneous, ecstatic, undefinable emotion.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1957
References
1 Published by Anna Theresa Kitchel as George Eliot's Quarry for “Middlemarch” (Los Angeles, 1950).
2 Miss Kitchel, after telling how Amy Lowell bought the Quarry from Quaritch and left it to Harvard Univ. upon her death in 1925, describes the notebook as “a small black leather notebook, 4| by 6J in. On the cover an undecipherable title in gilt script is concealed by a paper label inscribed in George Eliot's hand, ‘Quarry for Middlemarch.‘ About half the book is devoted principally to notes on scientific, and especially medical, matters, with three pages, 23, 24, and 26, listing mottoes from chapters, and one, 25, presenting political dates drawn from the Annual Register. This first half of the notebook we shall speak of as Quarry I. The notebook was then turned over and again almost exactly half of it was used, chiefly for the working out of the structure of the novel, though a few pages are devoted to political dates concerned with the passage of the First Reform Bill. This part of the notebook we shall call Quarry II ” (p. 1). I follow her Quarry designations.
3 The 4-volume, leather-bound MS. of Middlemarch (B.M. Add. MSS. 34,034–037) rests, with the MSS of all George Eliot's other major works except Scenes of Clerical Life, in the British Museum. Though George Eliot used different paper in different sections of Middlemarch, in that portion of the MS. with which we are concerned she used only a paper watermarked “T & [J] H Kent,” measuring approximately 7 by 9 inches (though perhaps as much as I in. has been trimmed off in the binding) and containing 23 blue ruled lines per page, lines which in this portion of the MS. George Eliot follows in her writing. She used a very dark brown ink, though sometime in 1872 she changed to violet ink, evidence of which is present in the very latest portions of the Middlemarch MS. Either the binder or some one in the museum has numbered each page in each volume in pencil, consecutively, the numbers beginning anew with each volume. George Eliot numbered her pages in ink in this portion of the MS., beginning anew with each half-volume part. I shall use George Eliot's page numbers and shall also refer to the Cabinet ed. (Edinburgh and London, n.d.) of her works.
According to George Eliot's pagination, Ch. lxxxi begins on p. 91 of Pt. VIII; according to B.M. pagination, on p. 244 of Vol. IV (ADD. MSS. 34, 037). In the Cabinet ed. That chapter begins on p. 395 of Vol. III of Middlemarch, ending on III, 396, with, “her into the the drawing-room, he.”
4 Page ends III, 397: “she coloured and gave rather a.”
5 “Always” was first replaced by “still,” then by the phrase in the right-hand column. The original version is on the left, the revised version on the right, here and throughout this article.
6 From “Tell Martha not to let any one else into the drawing-room,” to “Pray tell Martha not to bring any one else,” etc.
7 The incomplete structure in this version apparently indicates that George Eliot made the revision in mid-sentence. Where this seems to be the case in passages quoted below, no notation will be made.
8 George Eliot apparently made this change in proof, since the MS. reads like the original. Bound proof of the first edition corrected by the author is in the possession of Wing Commander G. D. Blackwood, who very kindly permitted me to examine it, but proof of this chapter is missing.
9 Page ends III, 400: “He confessed to me.”
10 E.g., the change from “The cordial, pleading tones which seemed in this warm flow to be utterly heedless of” to “The cordial, pleading tones which seemed to flow with generous heedlessness.” Pointed brackets < > enclose conjectural reading of partially legible words in MS.
11 Page ends III, 401: “that his misfortunes must.”
12 Page ends III, 403: “Pride was broken down between these two.”
13 Page ends III, 406: “slightly of me. He said.”
14 Page ends III, 407: “I was very' unhappy. I am.”
15 The phrase “now I am sure that” was inserted before the entire passage was deleted
16 It is difficult to tell what if any of this paragraph was in the first version of this page, From “With” to “great” may have been added in the space left by paragraphing—it begins immediately after “more” with no new paragraph indicated; “her from suffering, not count-” was added in the left margin of the MS page.
17 Page ends in, 408: “order your carriage to come for you?”
18 George Eliot inserted “stay in Middlemarch” and perhaps deleted the first “do anything” before deleting the entire passage.
19 George Eliot wrote the first 2 sentences—“ ‘How heavy’… interest in him”—in the bottom margin and the rest of the passage on the back of the page. She wrote the last 3 sentences in violet ink, apparently adding them at a later date, perhaps when she was rereading this portion of the novel before sending it off to the publisher.
20 Deleted here in mid-sentence was, “its bruised hope [word illegible] glad enough to nestle under.”
21 The phrase “accepted his” was substituted for “endured with sad resignation the,” apparently in mid-sentence.