Correspondence

5236.  Robert Bulwer Lytton to RB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 253–255.

10 June [1863] [1]

My dear Browning,

If I stopped to say how glad I was to get yr kind letter, or to ask & tell all the news of yr self & my self, that I long to ask & tell, this letter would be as long, as, I fear, it must now be short. For I am sharply pressed for time, which barely allows me to put the one question, & make the one request which I cannot postpone. Chapman will give you, with this letter, or soon after, the proofs of the prose story of mine, wh you refer to in yr letter. [2] It is short & will not take you long to read. I ask you as a great favour to myself to read it at once, and to send me as soon as you possibly can without inconvenience your candid & frank opinion of the book. There is a doubt on my mind, wh I have not time to explain the cause & nature of, as to whether I shd publish this book, or completely & at once suppress it at any cost. Your opinion as to its merits will greatly influence my decision, & for that reason I shall be grateful to have it not only sincerely expressed, but soon–

I want you to tell me whether in your opinion the book is on the whole good, or on the whole bad. Chiefly I want to know whether—judging the book—not as a novel wh it is not—but as the exceptional prose book of a writer in verse, you think it bears evidence of any qualities wh belong to genius, or is so deficient in essentials as to be in all respects a decided failure. In short you know all I have hitherto written, tell me fairly wherether [sic] the perusal of this book raises or lowers your individual estimate of the mind & faculty of the writer of it. Further more tell me whether after perusing it, yr impression is—that with the Few whose opinion like your own I value, & whose verdict is the only one that can give me pain or pleasure, the publication of this book will do me good,—that is to say whether it will tend to raise the estimate of its authors mind wh such men as yourself might form, in comparison with previous publications of my own, and contemporary prose stories by others,—or whether on the contrary it is likely to do me harm & seriously damage me in the opinion of the wise & discerning. I entreat you to answer me on these points as speedily as yr kindness can contrive, & to believe that I shall regard yr answer as a great favour & kindness to myself. Address to me

B. Legation. Copenhagen.

Denmark.

Pray regard this letter as secret & confidential, & dont discuss it with Chapman.

In dire haste

Yr ever loving

R Lytton

Get the proof from C. as soon as you can. You will probably find misprints & errors of that sort—this need hardly impede yr judgement as to the general character of the book.

Address, on integral page: Most private & most immediate / Robert Browning Eq / Care of F. Chapman Eq / To be forwarded / at once / R Lytton.

Publication: BBIS-10, pp. 214–215.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library

1. Year provided by Lytton’s reference to his novel, The Ring of Amasis (1863).

2. RB’s letter has not surfaced. His comments on Lytton’s novel—sent a week later (see letter 5238) were not in time to make any difference. The Ring of Amasis was published by Chapman and Hall on 13 June 1863; see their advertisement in The Athenæum of that date (no. 1859, p. 792).

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