1886-02-10 to Frans Netscher

Autograph letter signed, Letterkundig Museum, 446 words

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

3 Danes Inn, Wych Street, Strand.

The Court & Society Review, 143, Strand, London, W.C.

[Wednesday, 10 February 1886]

Dear Sir

I must apologize for not having written to you before, but the fact is my time has been so taken up that I have not been able to find time to attend to anything but the immediate necessities of the moment.

Your last letter interested me very much, for I was very anxious to hear what you thought of A Drama in Muslin. It was very cheering indeed to learn that you did not think, as far as you could judge from a first chapter, that there was any falling off from A Mummer’s Wife. Last week I sent you two more numbers and tomorrow I will send you a third.

I am sure you are right in what you say of “Dried Fruit” — It was written five years ago, and to make it pass muster I re-wrote it last year; but old work touched up is never equal to new.

I received De Gids but if you remember you sent me long ago the proof of the first part and I wrote to you about it. It is far too flattering. I know I don’t deserve the kind things you say. I am, however, looking forward to seeing the second part; besides being new to me it will be about A Mummer’s Wife which, as you know, I think is a much better book than A Modern Lover.

Mr. Van Laun will translate the second part of your article to me. Did you ever hear of him? He is a countryman of yours, but he always writes in English. He has translated Molière and Taine into English.

Has "Studies from the Naked Model" been published? I shall be very glad to see it — I shall get one of my friends to tell me what it is about but of course that is not the same as if I could read the text. I take it that it is a collection of short stories. Short stories do not sell in England. It is impossible to find a publisher to publish a volume, but when you write a long book perhaps I shall be able to find you a translator.

I saw M. Charpentier the other day in London. He tells me he hopes to publish the translation of AMW with the preface by M. Zola this spring. The preface will be interesting but the translation will, I fear, be very bad.

Yours very truly

George Moore