GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Torquay, [28? March 1868]
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Torquay, [28? March 1868]
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Torquay, [28? March 1868]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1868-03-28
Place
Torquay
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Torquay, [28? March 1868]
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Extracts published: Cross, III, 37-38, dated 6 April 1868.
Carclew | Hesketh Road | Torquay.
My dear Barbara
I did not write because you said you were going to Bromley, and seemed to imply that writing was needless.
It was a naughty piece of work to get a cold -- the thing of all others that you should guard against. We are very well, and are enjoying these perfect skies, sunshine all day, Venus and the crescent moon 733 in the evening. Torquay is getting too much like a London suburb, spreading out strands of half-built houses in all directions. But there are still a few quiet walks -- only a few -- and the soil has an almost Spanish richness of colour.
I think Ruskin has not been encouraged about women by his many and persistent efforts to teach them. He seems to have found them wanting in real scientific interest -- bent on sentimentalizing in everything.
What I should like to be sure of as a result of higher education for women -- a result that will come to pass over my grave -- is, their recognition of the great amount of social unproductive labour which needs to be done by women, and which is now either not done at all or done wretchedly.
No good can come to women, more than to any class of male mortals, while each aims at doing the highest kind of work, which ought rather to be held in sanctity as what only the few can do well. I believe -- and I want it to be well shown -- that a more thorough education will tend to do away with the odious vulgarity of our notions about functions and employment, and to propagate the true gospel that the deepest disgrace is to insist on doing work for which we are unfit -- to do work of any sort badly. There are many points of this kind that want being urged, but they do not come well from me, and I never like to be quoted in any way on this subject. But I will talk to you some day, and ask you to prevail on Miss Davies to write a little book which is much wanted.
We are uncertain whether we shall stay here more than a week
Ever thine
Marian.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Extracts published: Cross, III, 37-38, dated 6 April 1868.
Carclew | Hesketh Road | Torquay.
My dear Barbara
I did not write because you said you were going to Bromley, and seemed to imply that writing was needless.
It was a naughty piece of work to get a cold -- the thing of all others that you should guard against. We are very well, and are enjoying these perfect skies, sunshine all day, Venus and the crescent moon 733 in the evening. Torquay is getting too much like a London suburb, spreading out strands of half-built houses in all directions. But there are still a few quiet walks -- only a few -- and the soil has an almost Spanish richness of colour.
I think Ruskin has not been encouraged about women by his many and persistent efforts to teach them. He seems to have found them wanting in real scientific interest -- bent on sentimentalizing in everything.
What I should like to be sure of as a result of higher education for women -- a result that will come to pass over my grave -- is, their recognition of the great amount of social unproductive labour which needs to be done by women, and which is now either not done at all or done wretchedly.
No good can come to women, more than to any class of male mortals, while each aims at doing the highest kind of work, which ought rather to be held in sanctity as what only the few can do well. I believe -- and I want it to be well shown -- that a more thorough education will tend to do away with the odious vulgarity of our notions about functions and employment, and to propagate the true gospel that the deepest disgrace is to insist on doing work for which we are unfit -- to do work of any sort badly. There are many points of this kind that want being urged, but they do not come well from me, and I never like to be quoted in any way on this subject. But I will talk to you some day, and ask you to prevail on Miss Davies to write a little book which is much wanted.
We are uncertain whether we shall stay here more than a week
Ever thine
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Torquay, [28? March 1868], 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/93082