GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 14 July [1860]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 14 July [1860]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 14 July [1860]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1860-07-14
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 14 July [1860]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1860. Extracts published: Cross, II, 265-267.
Holly Lodge | July 14.
Dear Friend
I like such a letter as yours -- a letter that tells me some personal details. I have just been glancing at the account of the operatives' meeting in the Herald, 593 and find it so interesting that I shall return to it by and bye. It is rather a melancholy sort of interest, though; especially in connection with what you say of its immediate effect on your speculations. I am rather misty as to the nature of those speculations, but there is one thing clear to me -- that I shall be grieved if they turn out ill. I had not heard anything of the action for libel, 594 at least, that I remember.
We shall certainly read the parts you suggest in the "Education of the Feelings" 595 -- and I daresay I shall read a good deal more of it, liking to turn over the leaves of a book which I read first in our old drawing-room at Foleshill, and then lent to my sister, who, with a little air of maternal experience, pronounced it "very sensible." I have been looking for Cara's "Physiology" since I came home, wanting to read it, because I should have an affectionate feeling towards her sentences. But I fancy Mrs. Congreve did as I recommended her -- ran off with it and lent it to Miss Shaen, a lady who does good in the schools (Unitarian) of this too unschooled place.
There is so much that I want to do every day -- I had need cut myself into four women. We have a great extra interest and occupation just now in our big boy Charley, who is looking forward to a government examination, 596 and wants much help and sympathy in music and graver things. I think we are quite peculiarly blest in the fact that this eldest lad seems the most entirely lovable human animal of seventeen and a half, that I ever met with or heard of: he has a sweetness of disposition which is saved from weakness by a remarkable sense of duty. We are going to let our present house, if possible -- that is, get rid of it altogether, on account of its inconvenient situation; other projects are still in a floating unfixed condition.
The water did not look quite so green at Como -- perhaps as your remark suggests, because there was a less vivid green to be reflected from my personality as I looked down on it. I am eleven years nearer to the sere and yellow leaf, 597 and to my feeling am even more autumnal than my years.
I have read no reviews of the Mill on the Floss, except that in the "Times," which Blackwood sent me to Florence. I abstain, not from superciliousness, but on a calm consideration of the probable proportion of benefit on the one hand and waste of thought on the other. It was certain that in the notices of my first book after the removal of my incognito there would be much ex post facto wisdom, which could hardly profit me, since I certainly knew who I was beforehand, and knew also that no one else knew, who had not been told. Send me any good news about yourself.
Always your affectionate friend
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1860. Extracts published: Cross, II, 265-267.
Holly Lodge | July 14.
Dear Friend
I like such a letter as yours -- a letter that tells me some personal details. I have just been glancing at the account of the operatives' meeting in the Herald, 593 and find it so interesting that I shall return to it by and bye. It is rather a melancholy sort of interest, though; especially in connection with what you say of its immediate effect on your speculations. I am rather misty as to the nature of those speculations, but there is one thing clear to me -- that I shall be grieved if they turn out ill. I had not heard anything of the action for libel, 594 at least, that I remember.
We shall certainly read the parts you suggest in the "Education of the Feelings" 595 -- and I daresay I shall read a good deal more of it, liking to turn over the leaves of a book which I read first in our old drawing-room at Foleshill, and then lent to my sister, who, with a little air of maternal experience, pronounced it "very sensible." I have been looking for Cara's "Physiology" since I came home, wanting to read it, because I should have an affectionate feeling towards her sentences. But I fancy Mrs. Congreve did as I recommended her -- ran off with it and lent it to Miss Shaen, a lady who does good in the schools (Unitarian) of this too unschooled place.
There is so much that I want to do every day -- I had need cut myself into four women. We have a great extra interest and occupation just now in our big boy Charley, who is looking forward to a government examination, 596 and wants much help and sympathy in music and graver things. I think we are quite peculiarly blest in the fact that this eldest lad seems the most entirely lovable human animal of seventeen and a half, that I ever met with or heard of: he has a sweetness of disposition which is saved from weakness by a remarkable sense of duty. We are going to let our present house, if possible -- that is, get rid of it altogether, on account of its inconvenient situation; other projects are still in a floating unfixed condition.
The water did not look quite so green at Como -- perhaps as your remark suggests, because there was a less vivid green to be reflected from my personality as I looked down on it. I am eleven years nearer to the sere and yellow leaf, 597 and to my feeling am even more autumnal than my years.
I have read no reviews of the Mill on the Floss, except that in the "Times," which Blackwood sent me to Florence. I abstain, not from superciliousness, but on a calm consideration of the probable proportion of benefit on the one hand and waste of thought on the other. It was certain that in the notices of my first book after the removal of my incognito there would be much ex post facto wisdom, which could hardly profit me, since I certainly knew who I was beforehand, and knew also that no one else knew, who had not been told. Send me any good news about yourself.
Always your affectionate friend
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 14 July [1860], 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/92183