--I am, dear sir, yours respectfully,
'C. BELL.'
The following letter is interesting because it discusses the rejected
novel, and refers to the project of recasting it, which ended in the
writing of _Villette_. {335}
TO W. S. WILLIAMS
'_December_ 14_th_, 1847.
'DEAR SIR,--I have just received your kind and welcome letter of the
11th. I shall proceed at once to discuss the principal subject of
it.
'Of course a second work has occupied my thoughts much. I think it
would be premature in me to undertake a serial now--I am not yet
qualified for the task: I have neither gained a sufficiently firm
footing with the public, nor do I possess sufficient confidence in
myself, nor can I boast those unflagging animal spirits, that even
command of the faculty of composition, which as you say, and, I am
persuaded, most justly, is an indispensable requisite to success in
serial literature. I decidedly feel that ere I change my ground I
had better make another venture in the three volume novel form.
'Respecting the plan of such a work, I have pondered it, but as yet
with very unsatisfactory results. Three commencements have I
essayed, but all three displease me.
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