Melusina Peirce Summary

Marian Evans Lewes, an English novelist, explains her path to becoming a writer to the young Melusina Peirce. Lewes responded to Peirce’s fan mail to inform her about the realities of life as a writer. Lewes explains the harsh reality of what true writing feels like; however, she tries to encourage Peirce by explaining her (Lewes) mistakes and that Pierce still has an open future ahead. Marian Lewes responds to a fan letter sent to her by an aspiring writer Melusina Peirce with a description of writing often unseen, unimagined, and undesired by writers. Lewes revokes the idea of celebration following the completion of a completed work. She informs Peirce that “Exultation is a dream before achievement, and rarely comes after.” Lewes…show more content…
Lewes addresses problems with age and matureness so that Peirce is prepared and ready to write on her own. Lewes first warns Peirce about age limitations; writing too young leads to incomplete and emotionally vacant work. Lewes articulates, “ It is a misfortune to many that they begin to write when they are young and give out all that is genuine and peculiar in them when it can be no better than trashy, unripe fruit.” Lewes knows that a young writer does not have as deep emotions and as complete understanding of life. Just like an unripe fruit is edible but not tasty, an “unripe” writing work will be readable but not a delicious masterpiece. This analogy gives Peirce an understanding why age limits a writer’s success, and it consolidates her by informing her that that it is fine if she has not far behind. Lewes connect the idea that maturity and experience matter more in writing than practice. Lewes concedes her mistakes in her writing career in order to help Peirce learn how maturity, pride, and reality all relate to her experiences. Lewes acknowledges, “I was too proud and ambitious to write: I did not believe that I could do anything fine, and I did not choose to do anything of that mediocre sort which I despised so much when it was done by others.” Lewes implants familiar diction to remind Peirce of her earlier points. Lewes was “proud and ambitious,”…show more content…
Lewes explains how she first started writing for the sake of writing, rather than ambition. She says, “This resolve to work at what did not gratify my ambition, and to care only that I worked faithfully, was equivalent to the old phrase – ‘using the means of grace.’” Lewes reiterates the fact that writing is a selfless act but explains the process and transition to Peirce this time. True writing must come from “the means of grace,” a part of a writer’s soul that holds the faithfulness that helps the writer persevere through the demanding process. Lewes then ties together the ideas of pride in ones work and how age affects ones work. She states, “When we are young we say, ‘I should be proud if I could do that.’ Having done it, one finds oneself the reverse of proud.” Lewes unites the idea young authors are inexperienced and too naïve to fully understand the maturity of writing; therefore, they believe that writing is a tool for flattery rather than expression of oneself. She explains to Peirce how her young immature self saw writing as something Lewes could celebrate; but realizing the sacrifice and exhaustion writing brings, Lewes maturely understands that writing becomes a means of self-expression. Only a mature writer, one whose focus is not on ambition and pride, understands the heavy task of writing and how to bear the weight of its