Yesterday read "Letters from the Baltic"; much pleased with it; very
clever writer; critique in _Despatch_ harsh and unjust; quite uncalled
for; blackguard affair altogether.
I remain, dear Sir, ever yours,
GEORGE BORROW,
_December_ 31, 1842.
MY DEAR SIR,
I have great pleasure in acknowledging your very kind letter of the
28th, and am happy to hear that matters are going on so prosperously. It
is quite useless to write books unless they sell, and the public has of
late become so fastidious that it is no easy matter to please it. With
respect to the critique in the _Times_, I fully agree with you that it
was harsh and unjust, and the passages selected by no means calculated
to afford a fair idea of the contents of the work. A book, however, like
"The Bible in Spain" can scarcely be published without exciting
considerable hostility, and I have been so long used to receiving hard
knocks that they make no impression upon me. After all, the abuse of the
_Times_ is better than its silence; it would scarcely have attacked the
work unless it had deemed it of some importance, and so the public will
think.
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