GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 29 January 1872
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 29 January 1872
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 29 January 1872
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Francois D'Albert-Durade
Date(s)
- 1872-01-29
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 29 January 1872
Text: Copy by D'Albert-Durade in Tinker Collection, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory | 21 North Bank | Regent's Park | January 29. 72.
My dear Friend
Thanks for your kind letter, so delightful to read as your letters have always been. The weather here, though remarkably mild, seems to be as unfavourable to health as its severer form with you. We have been both sufferers, Mr. Lewes perhaps not so much as myself, from the alternation of fog and rain, but I more than I remember in these later years. I was very ill prepared for the depressing influence of winter by a severe illness -- a gastric irritation which attacked me on our return from the country and robbed me of two months, during which I was a much petted patient, while Mr. Lewes was a perfect nurse. This want of health has retarded me in my work -- which would be a matter of no consequence if I had not begun to print. However I am advanced enough to make all things easy if I can keep well now.
The plan of publication is a new one, namely in [parts] each equal to half a volume which will appear every two months. The second part will appear on the 1st of February just coming. That part of the English edition costs 5 s. I would send it you as it appears, but that we have made arrangements with Cohn, the publisher of Berlin, to bring out an edition (in English) so that it will soon be at hand in Geneva, and Blackwood will be relieved from the attention [of] an additional detail to the already numerous despatches of proofs to various places abroad. There are to be eight of these bi-monthly parts, so you perceive it will be a frightfully long book. But I wanted to give a panoramic view of provincial life, which could not be done in small space.
We both desire very much to make a visit to Geneva as soon as my work is quite out of my hands. But that will hardly be until the autumn.
I trust that dear Madame D'Albert's health will be re-established when there is a change of season -- that change which I remember to have been delightful as early as February in the happy time of my stay with you. In the meantime, I shall think of her the more because her symptoms seem to be very much like what I am continually feeling. But for infirmity of body our happiness would be quite untroubled. It is hardly possible to have more of real peace and joy in each other than we two are blessed with. But if I live to see you again, you will be rather startled with the effect of the years upon me.
Mrs. Sartoris, a charming accomplished woman who was once Adelaide Kemble, tells me that she met a Mr. D'Albert, a son of yours, at Vichy last year, or rather the year before last, who spoke of me as having been in your house. He was alone, she said, and musical. I thence conclude that this son must have been Mr. Charles. 455
Give my best love to the ever dear Maman and pray accept for her and yourself Mr. Lewes's very high respects. You believe, I hope, that I am and shall always be till I die
Your affectionate friend
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Copy by D'Albert-Durade in Tinker Collection, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory | 21 North Bank | Regent's Park | January 29. 72.
My dear Friend
Thanks for your kind letter, so delightful to read as your letters have always been. The weather here, though remarkably mild, seems to be as unfavourable to health as its severer form with you. We have been both sufferers, Mr. Lewes perhaps not so much as myself, from the alternation of fog and rain, but I more than I remember in these later years. I was very ill prepared for the depressing influence of winter by a severe illness -- a gastric irritation which attacked me on our return from the country and robbed me of two months, during which I was a much petted patient, while Mr. Lewes was a perfect nurse. This want of health has retarded me in my work -- which would be a matter of no consequence if I had not begun to print. However I am advanced enough to make all things easy if I can keep well now.
The plan of publication is a new one, namely in [parts] each equal to half a volume which will appear every two months. The second part will appear on the 1st of February just coming. That part of the English edition costs 5 s. I would send it you as it appears, but that we have made arrangements with Cohn, the publisher of Berlin, to bring out an edition (in English) so that it will soon be at hand in Geneva, and Blackwood will be relieved from the attention [of] an additional detail to the already numerous despatches of proofs to various places abroad. There are to be eight of these bi-monthly parts, so you perceive it will be a frightfully long book. But I wanted to give a panoramic view of provincial life, which could not be done in small space.
We both desire very much to make a visit to Geneva as soon as my work is quite out of my hands. But that will hardly be until the autumn.
I trust that dear Madame D'Albert's health will be re-established when there is a change of season -- that change which I remember to have been delightful as early as February in the happy time of my stay with you. In the meantime, I shall think of her the more because her symptoms seem to be very much like what I am continually feeling. But for infirmity of body our happiness would be quite untroubled. It is hardly possible to have more of real peace and joy in each other than we two are blessed with. But if I live to see you again, you will be rather startled with the effect of the years upon me.
Mrs. Sartoris, a charming accomplished woman who was once Adelaide Kemble, tells me that she met a Mr. D'Albert, a son of yours, at Vichy last year, or rather the year before last, who spoke of me as having been in your house. He was alone, she said, and musical. I thence conclude that this son must have been Mr. Charles. 455
Give my best love to the ever dear Maman and pray accept for her and yourself Mr. Lewes's very high respects. You believe, I hope, that I am and shall always be till I die
Your affectionate friend
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 29 January 1872, 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/92365