GE to John Chapman, Berlin, 9 December 1854
Title
GE to John Chapman, Berlin, 9 December 1854
Title
GE to John Chapman, Berlin, 9 December 1854
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Chapman
Date(s)
- 1854-12-09
Place
Berlin
Letter Content
GE to John Chapman, Berlin, 9 December 1854
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Miss Evans. Extract published: Haight, George Eliot, p. 174.
2 Dorotheen Strasse, Berlin | December 9. 1854.
Dear Friend
It was agreeable to have some news of you after your long silence, but it would have been still more agreeable if you could have told me that you were in good health. 237 I hope however, that, as life is generally a see-saw of troubles, your bodily discomfort is compensated by greater ease and satisfaction in other respects.
The information you gave me about Miss B. Smith 238 is quite an unexpected source of painful sympathy. She seemed so secure in the possession of physical strength that I can hardly imagine her an invalid. I heartily wish she may be restored by southern air and get back to England as bright and blooming as ever.
I am much obliged to you for your offer to send me the W. R., but I need not give you that trouble, as there is a copy at the Library here.
Mr. Lewes's health is far from being completely restored; he is frequently, indeed constantly, obliged to rise from his work by a burning sensation in his head. This is particularly trying to one who enjoys work so much as he does, and who is so much in need of its results. With this exception, our life at Berlin is eminently agreeable; we have seen some very pleasant and varied society, partly made up of Mr. Lewes's old friends and partly of new ones. But we enjoy our evenings at home most of all -- we read furiously and are trying to get very wise, in spite of Solomon's proverb about the unimprovability of bad materials. 239 I ought to mention, as another exception to happiness, our anxiety about the war, 240 which you must all be feeling terribly. Kossuth's representation of the English position seems in some respects irrefragable, and is no cheerful one. 241 The sympathies of the people here seem to be entirely with the Allies. We have been pleased to hear it observed at table that the English despatches and journals are the only ones to be relied on for telling the truth. One would of course prefer that the whole world should tell the truth, but if there must be liars, I suppose we are not to carry our generosity so far as not to wish that somebody else should have the misfortune to be such rather than ourselves. We are having the most variable weather imaginable -- no severe cold, but alternate rain, slight frost, and mugginess. I dare say you are no better off in London -- the more's the pity.
I hope Mr. Mackay's book 242 will prove a success for you and him -- it is a dismal thing to write and publish in vain. But the treatment which books get from periodical critics is really disheartening -- the more I read the Athenaeum, the more I feel disgusted with the incompetence and unconscientiousness of the people who have the pretention of guiding the public. The marvel is that any sensible person can think such reviews any criterion of the value of books. But you do not want to read J'e9r'e9miades of this sort, for you must be singing them yourself only too often.
I have just asked Mr. Lewes if he can think of anything interesting to tell you, and he replies by quoting a discovery as to the anatomy of perches just made by some French anatomist! -- I tell you this to show you my utter destitution of news which you would care to hear. This scrap of a letter is to be enclosed in one from Mr. Lewes to Mr. Pigott, so you must not marvel to see it without a post mark.
I wish you all possible success, -- including good out of Nazareth i.e. desirable theology from Oxford, 243 -- to cheer you by your Christmas fires, and am always
Your sincere Friend
Marian Evans.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Miss Evans. Extract published: Haight, George Eliot, p. 174.
2 Dorotheen Strasse, Berlin | December 9. 1854.
Dear Friend
It was agreeable to have some news of you after your long silence, but it would have been still more agreeable if you could have told me that you were in good health. 237 I hope however, that, as life is generally a see-saw of troubles, your bodily discomfort is compensated by greater ease and satisfaction in other respects.
The information you gave me about Miss B. Smith 238 is quite an unexpected source of painful sympathy. She seemed so secure in the possession of physical strength that I can hardly imagine her an invalid. I heartily wish she may be restored by southern air and get back to England as bright and blooming as ever.
I am much obliged to you for your offer to send me the W. R., but I need not give you that trouble, as there is a copy at the Library here.
Mr. Lewes's health is far from being completely restored; he is frequently, indeed constantly, obliged to rise from his work by a burning sensation in his head. This is particularly trying to one who enjoys work so much as he does, and who is so much in need of its results. With this exception, our life at Berlin is eminently agreeable; we have seen some very pleasant and varied society, partly made up of Mr. Lewes's old friends and partly of new ones. But we enjoy our evenings at home most of all -- we read furiously and are trying to get very wise, in spite of Solomon's proverb about the unimprovability of bad materials. 239 I ought to mention, as another exception to happiness, our anxiety about the war, 240 which you must all be feeling terribly. Kossuth's representation of the English position seems in some respects irrefragable, and is no cheerful one. 241 The sympathies of the people here seem to be entirely with the Allies. We have been pleased to hear it observed at table that the English despatches and journals are the only ones to be relied on for telling the truth. One would of course prefer that the whole world should tell the truth, but if there must be liars, I suppose we are not to carry our generosity so far as not to wish that somebody else should have the misfortune to be such rather than ourselves. We are having the most variable weather imaginable -- no severe cold, but alternate rain, slight frost, and mugginess. I dare say you are no better off in London -- the more's the pity.
I hope Mr. Mackay's book 242 will prove a success for you and him -- it is a dismal thing to write and publish in vain. But the treatment which books get from periodical critics is really disheartening -- the more I read the Athenaeum, the more I feel disgusted with the incompetence and unconscientiousness of the people who have the pretention of guiding the public. The marvel is that any sensible person can think such reviews any criterion of the value of books. But you do not want to read J'e9r'e9miades of this sort, for you must be singing them yourself only too often.
I have just asked Mr. Lewes if he can think of anything interesting to tell you, and he replies by quoting a discovery as to the anatomy of perches just made by some French anatomist! -- I tell you this to show you my utter destitution of news which you would care to hear. This scrap of a letter is to be enclosed in one from Mr. Lewes to Mr. Pigott, so you must not marvel to see it without a post mark.
I wish you all possible success, -- including good out of Nazareth i.e. desirable theology from Oxford, 243 -- to cheer you by your Christmas fires, and am always
Your sincere Friend
Marian Evans.
Signature
Marian Evans.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Chapman, Berlin, 9 December 1854, 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/92771