Shadows of the Clouds

Shadows of the Clouds

Froude, James Anthony

London: Ollivier, 1847

Internet Archive

1947

George Eliot to Sara Sophia Hennell, 18 April 1849. “You must read the ‘Shadows of the Clouds’ -- it produces a sort of palpitation that one hardly knows whether to call wretched or delightful. I cannot take up the book again though wanting very much to read it more closely. Poor and shallow as one's own soul is, it is blessed to think that a sort of transhumanation is possible by which the greater ones can live in us. Egotism apart, another's greatness, beauty or bliss is our own -- and let us sing a Magnificat when we are conscious that this power of expansion and sympathy is growing just in proportion as the individual satisfactions are lessening. Miserable dust of the earth we are, but it is worth while to be so for the sake of the living soul -- the breath of God within us. You see I can do nothing but scribble my own prosy stuff -- such chopped straw as my soul is foddered on.” GEL 1: 280

Froude, James Anthony, Shadows of the Clouds, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57785

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/f9a681e0852b05b1d2cbd7721575d0bb.pdf