1883-04-08 to Mary Blake Moore

Autograph letter signed, National LIbrary of Ireland, 309 words

[Edited for paragraph breaks, capitalization, spelling and punctuation.]

[Sunday, 8 April 1883]

My dear Mama

I am sorry my not writing caused uneasiness but I really know not what to tell you, now I have the pen in my hand, beyond the fact that my novel has gone to the printers and will be published perhaps in May, certainly in June.

It is the best thing I have done; it is the only thing I have done. People may like it or dislike it but I do not think that anyone will take it for anything except the work of a person who has endeavoured to think for himself.

That it is peculiar goes without saying. I was born, I live and I shall die a peculiar man — I could not be commonplace were I to try.

The bitterest thing is what I think myself: — it is not a work of genius, not of great talent, it is the work of a man affected with that most terrible of all maladies: a dash of genius. We are the unfortunates who lead the way, who perish unknown in the fight and upon whose bodies others ascend the peaks of fame lit with the starlight of immortality.

My novel is a new method. It is not a warming up of Dickens or Thackeray. It is a method that will certainly be adopted by other writers. But will the first effort meet with recognition? I scarcely think so.

As regards my health I am now quite well. Dusty has had a slight attack of the measles but is now all right.

Yours affect

George Moore

Tell people about my book and try to get them to order it at the libraries. It is to be called Three Women.