1886-08-31 to Frans Netscher

Autograph letter signed, Letterkundig Museum, 264 words

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

The Green, Southwick. Near Brighton

[Tuesday, 31 August 1886]

Dear Sir

At last we found a person who could read and give an intelligent opinion on a Dutch book. I enclose you what he says about yours.

His verdict, although not one that would justify my publisher in issuing a translation, is a very favourable one. There is no doubt but that Vizetelly will publish a translation of Dina, and judging by the papers I send you, you will have the advantage of an excellent translator. He seems to appreciate and understand your work thoroughly. His description is most suggestive and makes me more eager than ever to read the book.

I am very catholic in my tastes, more so than I fancy you are, and although I have been reading with intense delight Victor Hugo's last volume La Fin de Satan, I am sure that your sketches of Dutch life would charm me by an intensity of feeling and observation akin to that which we find in Peter da Hague. What a painter he was!

What do you think of Disenchantment? I know another lady who is writing a realistic novel — Her hero is a Jew doctor. I do not think a woman ever painted a man so cunningly before.

Will you kindly return the papers I send you?

Yours very truly

George Moore.

A Drama in Muslin is selling very well indeed. How do my Figaro articles strike you? Zola likes them immensely.