GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 23 July 1859
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 23 July 1859
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 23 July 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1859-07-23
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 23 July 1859
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Brief extract published: Barbara Stephen, Emily Davies and Girton College, 1927, p. 38.
Holly Lodge | July 23. 59.
Dear Barbara
We reached home last night, and one of my first thoughts is naturally about you. Did you get your three volumes of American Letters? Mr. Lewes thought we had better send them even without your commands, and we sent them by the carrier accordingly.
I am wonderfully inspirited and strengthened by our rapid run -- Mr. Lewes less so, but still conscious of benefit. Some quiet days of talk with the Congreves, in sight of the Lucerne lake and mountains, was a soothing change to me, and I sit down to my desk with fresh courage and fresh enjoyment. You are getting the same sort of repose in the green country, I hope. Let me hear of it, and enrich my life with your pleasures.
The 4th edition of '91Adam Bede'92 (5000) sold in a fortnight! These are the results that give one fortitude to endure one's enemies -- even to endure one's friends. I will not call you a friend -- I will rather call you by some name that I am not obliged to associate with evaporated professions and petty egoism. I will call you only Barbara, the name I must always associate with a true, large heart. Some mean, treacherous Barbara may come across me, but she will only be like a shadow of a vulgar woman flitting across my fresco of St. Barbara.
Ever yours,
Marian.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Brief extract published: Barbara Stephen, Emily Davies and Girton College, 1927, p. 38.
Holly Lodge | July 23. 59.
Dear Barbara
We reached home last night, and one of my first thoughts is naturally about you. Did you get your three volumes of American Letters? Mr. Lewes thought we had better send them even without your commands, and we sent them by the carrier accordingly.
I am wonderfully inspirited and strengthened by our rapid run -- Mr. Lewes less so, but still conscious of benefit. Some quiet days of talk with the Congreves, in sight of the Lucerne lake and mountains, was a soothing change to me, and I sit down to my desk with fresh courage and fresh enjoyment. You are getting the same sort of repose in the green country, I hope. Let me hear of it, and enrich my life with your pleasures.
The 4th edition of '91Adam Bede'92 (5000) sold in a fortnight! These are the results that give one fortitude to endure one's enemies -- even to endure one's friends. I will not call you a friend -- I will rather call you by some name that I am not obliged to associate with evaporated professions and petty egoism. I will call you only Barbara, the name I must always associate with a true, large heart. Some mean, treacherous Barbara may come across me, but she will only be like a shadow of a vulgar woman flitting across my fresco of St. Barbara.
Ever yours,
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 23 July 1859, 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/93093