SD1207.2. Harriet Martineau to Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 8.

Tynemouth

April 27th [1844]

Dear Sir Edward

Here I have the book at last,—& delicious I find it. …

Do you know Miss Barrett’s “Dead Pan,”—originated by the “Gods of Greece”? It is very fine,—though it has mechanical faults. It is not published, & must not be copied: but I cd lend it you, if you wd like a sight of it. You know the noble legend (as well as you know the Deluge, no doubt) of the heathen gods falling discrowned from their thrones when Christ hung on the Cross. This poem shows what they are about now. What a wonderful woman she is!—her genial & glowing morale so self-sustained, regulated, & cheerily sympathetic under the inspiration of her genius & learning, & the very hard pressure of her suffering life. She is better, however, & there seems some distant hope of her rising to a condition of something like ease & strength. …

Publication: The Collected Letters of Harriet Martineau, ed. Deborah Anna Logan (London, 2007), 2, 288–291.

Manuscript: Lord Cobbold.

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