introduced. He would not pronounce whether it came up to my ideas, but remarked afterwards that he would have liked to read more, which I thought a good sign."
Dickens, less guarded in his praise, had the perception to discover the sex of the new author, which was then much discussed, the prevailing idea being that she was a clergyman. He wrote a letter which he knew would be read to her, in which he gave her the generous welcome which he never failed to bestow upon merit, whether known or not yet known.
Adam Bede was begun as soon as the "Scenes" were finished, and it was hailed by Mr. Blackwood with delight.
"Tell George Eliot," he wrote to Mr. Lewes, "that I think 'Adam Bede' all right—most lifelike and real. I shall read the MS. quietly over again before writing in detail about it. . . . For the first reading, it did not signify how many things I had to think of; I would have hurried through it with eager pleasure. I write this note to allay all anxiety on the part of George Eliot as to my appreciation of the merits of this most promising opening of a picture of life. In spite of all injunctions, I began 'Adam Bede' in the railway, and felt very savage when the waning light stopped me as we neared the Scottish border."
The book was published in January, 1859, the greater part of the second volume being sent from Munich, George Eliot being in Germany at that time. Its power was at once recognized, and public curiosity about the author grew more and more intense. She had, in her previous work, described with close accuracy many of the scenes around Nuneaton and Coventry; moreover, she had not contented herself with painting merely the background of her scenes from life, but, in "Amos Barton," had chosen as her theme a story well known in the neighborhood.
