Anthony Trollope to GE, Waltham Cross, 3 August 1866
Title
Anthony Trollope to GE, Waltham Cross, 3 August 1866
Title
Anthony Trollope to GE, Waltham Cross, 3 August 1866
Sender
Anthony Trollope
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1866-08-03
Place
Waltham Cross
Letter Content
Anthony Trollope to GE, Waltham Cross, 3 August 1866
MS: Princeton. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, p. 186.
Waltham House, | Waltham Cross.
August 3 1866.
My dear Mrs Lewes.
I must welcome you home with a word of thanks for Felix Holt which I received from Mr. Blackwood as a present from you.
I hope you are gratified by the reception which it has obtained. I know how disdainful you are of ordinary eulogium, -- being perhaps led on to be somewhat more so than your own nature would make you by the severity of G.H.L. But in spite of him and his severity, and of your own disdain whether natural or acquired, the unrivalled success of Felix Holt must have touched you. For, as far as I can make an estimate of such things, I think its success is unrivalled.
For myself I think it has more elaborated thought in it, and that it is in that way a greater work, than anything you have done before. With the character of Mr. Lyon I am perfectly satisfied, loving all his words dearly. Felix is very great as the result of an admirably conceived plan of a character. With Esther I feel sometimes inclined to quarrel because she seems to doubt, after she knows that she loves the man. Mrs. Transome is excellent and great. Mrs. Holt is very good, -- though not equal to Mrs. Poyser as being perhaps less like what I have seen with these eyes of the flesh and heard with these ears. As to story Adam Bede is still my favorite. For picturesque word painting Romola stands first. To me the great glory of Felix Holt is the fulness of thought which has been bestowed on it.
My kindest regards to the Master. If he wants any of the new batch of
000 cigars which I have just got over from Cuba let him tell me at once how many. I called on Thursday and heard from cook some feeble excuse about the weather. The summer winds had detained you!!!
Yours always most heartily
Anthony Trollope.
MS: Princeton. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, p. 186.
Waltham House, | Waltham Cross.
August 3 1866.
My dear Mrs Lewes.
I must welcome you home with a word of thanks for Felix Holt which I received from Mr. Blackwood as a present from you.
I hope you are gratified by the reception which it has obtained. I know how disdainful you are of ordinary eulogium, -- being perhaps led on to be somewhat more so than your own nature would make you by the severity of G.H.L. But in spite of him and his severity, and of your own disdain whether natural or acquired, the unrivalled success of Felix Holt must have touched you. For, as far as I can make an estimate of such things, I think its success is unrivalled.
For myself I think it has more elaborated thought in it, and that it is in that way a greater work, than anything you have done before. With the character of Mr. Lyon I am perfectly satisfied, loving all his words dearly. Felix is very great as the result of an admirably conceived plan of a character. With Esther I feel sometimes inclined to quarrel because she seems to doubt, after she knows that she loves the man. Mrs. Transome is excellent and great. Mrs. Holt is very good, -- though not equal to Mrs. Poyser as being perhaps less like what I have seen with these eyes of the flesh and heard with these ears. As to story Adam Bede is still my favorite. For picturesque word painting Romola stands first. To me the great glory of Felix Holt is the fulness of thought which has been bestowed on it.
My kindest regards to the Master. If he wants any of the new batch of
000 cigars which I have just got over from Cuba let him tell me at once how many. I called on Thursday and heard from cook some feeble excuse about the weather. The summer winds had detained you!!!
Yours always most heartily
Anthony Trollope.
Signature
Anthony Trollope.
Citation
Anthony Trollope, Anthony Trollope to GE, Waltham Cross, 3 August 1866, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91704