ABSTRACT
The origin of this article can be traced back to a letter from George Eliot to John Chapman on 5 July 1856 in which she wrote, 'I wonder what the story called "Compensation" is. I have long wanted to fire away at the doctrine of Compensation, which I detest, considered as a way of life'. 1 The article that grew from this germ turned out to be not an attack on false moral doctrine but on the class of silly novels represented by Compensation. Two weeks after the first letter George Eliot noted in her Journal for 20 July that Chapman had invited her to contribute to the October number of the Westminster, and on the same day she wrote to him saying, 'I think an article on "Silly Women's Novels" might be made the vehicle of some wholesome truth as well as of some amusement. I mentioned this to Mr. Lewes last night and he thought the idea a good one.' 2
