GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 January 1862
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 January 1862
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 January 1862
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Francois D'Albert-Durade
Date(s)
- 1862-01-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 January 1862
MS: Yale. Extract published: Cross, New Edition, pp. 348-349.
Blandford Square | January 2. 1862.
Dear Friend
First of all, by way of explanation, I did not receive your letter despatched a month ago. It is very disagreeable, is it not? -- to have our faith in the Post Office shaken. I had been for many weeks rather wondering at your long silence, but I had tried to still all anxiety by believing that you and Maman were too busy and too happy with your son's marriage to have time for letter-writing. Still, I had been more than once on the point of satisfying myself by writing to you, when, on going down to lunch this morning, I was rejoiced by the welcome sight of your letter lying against my plate. All regret is quenched in the pleasure of finding that you really have been busy and happy as I had tried to imagine you. Pray give a hearty kiss to dear Maman for me, and tell her I feel maternal enough now, with our great boys, to enter at least into half her joy.
When I last wrote to you, Mr. Lewes was sadly out of health, and my heart was rather heavy about him. But for the last two months he has been so much better as to enjoy work. He has begun a long labour which we have been contemplating for him several years, as a thing to be undertaken when circumstances should make it possible -- a History of Science for which he feels that there is a vacant place in our scientific literature. He has been working very ardently on Aristotle, trying to give a complete estimate of what that greatest of ancients did in physical science; for, strangely enough after all the writing on the subject of Aristotle, there is no thorough analysis of his scientific works and no tolerable estimate of them -- the reason being that scholarship has hardly ever been accompanied by very deep acquaintance with physical science.
Our dear boy Charles is as great a comfort to us as ever in the sweetness of his disposition and conscientious discharge of his duties. And Thornton -- our second, you know -- is working hard at Edinburgh, trying earnestly, we think, to prepare himself for the Indian examination next summer. I have no special ailment, but I think I suffer a constant depression of vitality from this foggy air of London. The yearning for the blue sky and the fields haunts me constantly. For the rest, we have all blessings that are worth desiring.
My interest in everything that can, even but slightly, affect you and Maman, makes me sorry that your careful translations of my books should not bring something into that "budget" which has been drawn upon rather heavily of late. I have learned to take a very matter-of-fact view of money matters, and should like, of all things, to know that those I love are not in the least troubled about them. I fear that the widely spread knowledge of the English language gives "Tauchnitz" too overpowering an advantage for a publisher to venture on much risk for translations, beyond the cost of print and paper; but a small sum would be more cheering than blank nothing. I find, to my surprize, that I have admirers in France, and in some cases, where I least expected them -- Montalembert, for example, and -- Alexandre Dumas! (the Elder). 3 Count Arrivabene, 4 on his return from Naples told us that Dumas went off into rhapsodies about Adam Bede, and pronounced it the first novel of the age. After this, I will never guess who will admire or dislike me.
After the marriage of Alphonse, the news of your son Charles being at home with you, and actively employed, is a fact I shall like to think of, when I give my mind a holiday, by picturing what is going forward at Geneva. Such picturing is often done viv'e2 voce -- for Mr. Lewes and I like to talk of you both.
The treachery of the Post Office makes me beg you to send me a few lines, that I may know you have received this letter. Perhaps one additional precaution you might take in the address would be to write simply Madame Lewes, as the name Lewes which the postman associates with our house is sometimes obscured, owing to the double name, 5 by the Postmark.
Goodbye, dear Friend. Mr. Lewes shares in my hopes that we may all meet again, and that the coming year may be full of blessing to Maman and you. You have both the undying affection and esteem of
Your faithful Friend
M. E. Lewes.
No French translation of the "Physiology of Common Life" has yet appeared.
MS: Yale. Extract published: Cross, New Edition, pp. 348-349.
Blandford Square | January 2. 1862.
Dear Friend
First of all, by way of explanation, I did not receive your letter despatched a month ago. It is very disagreeable, is it not? -- to have our faith in the Post Office shaken. I had been for many weeks rather wondering at your long silence, but I had tried to still all anxiety by believing that you and Maman were too busy and too happy with your son's marriage to have time for letter-writing. Still, I had been more than once on the point of satisfying myself by writing to you, when, on going down to lunch this morning, I was rejoiced by the welcome sight of your letter lying against my plate. All regret is quenched in the pleasure of finding that you really have been busy and happy as I had tried to imagine you. Pray give a hearty kiss to dear Maman for me, and tell her I feel maternal enough now, with our great boys, to enter at least into half her joy.
When I last wrote to you, Mr. Lewes was sadly out of health, and my heart was rather heavy about him. But for the last two months he has been so much better as to enjoy work. He has begun a long labour which we have been contemplating for him several years, as a thing to be undertaken when circumstances should make it possible -- a History of Science for which he feels that there is a vacant place in our scientific literature. He has been working very ardently on Aristotle, trying to give a complete estimate of what that greatest of ancients did in physical science; for, strangely enough after all the writing on the subject of Aristotle, there is no thorough analysis of his scientific works and no tolerable estimate of them -- the reason being that scholarship has hardly ever been accompanied by very deep acquaintance with physical science.
Our dear boy Charles is as great a comfort to us as ever in the sweetness of his disposition and conscientious discharge of his duties. And Thornton -- our second, you know -- is working hard at Edinburgh, trying earnestly, we think, to prepare himself for the Indian examination next summer. I have no special ailment, but I think I suffer a constant depression of vitality from this foggy air of London. The yearning for the blue sky and the fields haunts me constantly. For the rest, we have all blessings that are worth desiring.
My interest in everything that can, even but slightly, affect you and Maman, makes me sorry that your careful translations of my books should not bring something into that "budget" which has been drawn upon rather heavily of late. I have learned to take a very matter-of-fact view of money matters, and should like, of all things, to know that those I love are not in the least troubled about them. I fear that the widely spread knowledge of the English language gives "Tauchnitz" too overpowering an advantage for a publisher to venture on much risk for translations, beyond the cost of print and paper; but a small sum would be more cheering than blank nothing. I find, to my surprize, that I have admirers in France, and in some cases, where I least expected them -- Montalembert, for example, and -- Alexandre Dumas! (the Elder). 3 Count Arrivabene, 4 on his return from Naples told us that Dumas went off into rhapsodies about Adam Bede, and pronounced it the first novel of the age. After this, I will never guess who will admire or dislike me.
After the marriage of Alphonse, the news of your son Charles being at home with you, and actively employed, is a fact I shall like to think of, when I give my mind a holiday, by picturing what is going forward at Geneva. Such picturing is often done viv'e2 voce -- for Mr. Lewes and I like to talk of you both.
The treachery of the Post Office makes me beg you to send me a few lines, that I may know you have received this letter. Perhaps one additional precaution you might take in the address would be to write simply Madame Lewes, as the name Lewes which the postman associates with our house is sometimes obscured, owing to the double name, 5 by the Postmark.
Goodbye, dear Friend. Mr. Lewes shares in my hopes that we may all meet again, and that the coming year may be full of blessing to Maman and you. You have both the undying affection and esteem of
Your faithful Friend
M. E. Lewes.
No French translation of the "Physiology of Common Life" has yet appeared.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 January 1862, 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/92348