Letter from Margaret Emily Gaskell, Manchester, to George du Maurier, 1895 September 8 : autograph manuscript signed.

Congratulating him on Trilby; saying "Although you will probably hear it from a hundred different sources, yet I cannot help writing a (hurried) line to tell you what immense excitement there was last night about Trilby. 'First nights' and 'last nights' of Irvings were not to be compared to it - Five extra rows of stalls, and crowds standing, testified to the interest of the 'critical' Manchester public. Julia and I thought the 'intention' of the drama much spoiled, by Trilby's being made to renounce Little Billee when under Svengali's hypnotic influence instead of its being her own noble sacrifice. Also Mr. Potter has made an inartistic double-barrelled climax - quite different to the story. Trilby all but recovers and one thinks that she and little Billee are going to live happy every after. The extraordinary thing was, that the faces drawn so beautifully in the Harper edition, were actually reproduced in the living action! Miss Baird (tho' not quite so lovely) was exactly of the type of Trilby and Mr. Tree was perfectly painted and be-nosed into a Svengali. Mr. Arnold, Mrs. Humphrey Ward's brother, who was, I fancy there as professional critic, came to speak to us between the Acts, and made a funny little 'boutade' - saying how 'Trilby' had beaten the record in America, whereas till Trilby Robert Elsmere had done so. Of course, this requires no reply;" adding, in a postscript, Mr. Paul Potter looks like a bull! I write in the greatest haste with my things on for a journey."