'MY DEAR SIR,--I herewith send you a very roughly written copy of
what I have to say about my sisters. When you have read it you can
better judge whether the word "Notice" or "Memoir" is the most
appropriate. I think the former. Memoir seems to me to express a
more circumstantial and different sort of account. My aim is to give
a just idea of their identity, not to write any narration of their
simple, uneventful lives. I depend on you for faithfully pointing
out whatever may strike you as faulty. I could not write it in the
conventional form--_that_ I found impossible.
'It gives me real pleasure to hear of your son's success. I trust he
may persevere and go on improving, and give his parents cause for
satisfaction and honest pride.
'I am truly pleased, too, to learn that Miss Kavanagh has managed so
well with Mr. Colburn. Her position seems to me one deserving of all
sympathy. I often think of her. Will her novel soon be published?
Somehow I expect it to be interesting.
'I certainly did hope that Mrs. Gaskell would offer her next work to
Smith & Elder. She and I had some conversation about publishers--a
comparison of our literary experiences was made. She seemed much
struck with the differences between hers and mine, though I did not
enter into details or tell her all.
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