GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, [Foleshill, December 1842](1)
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, [Foleshill, December 1842](1)
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, [Foleshill, December 1842](1)
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1842-12
Place
Foleshill
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, [Foleshill, December 1842](1)
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1843. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 119-120.
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood so art thou my beloved, among the daughters, 458 and I only wish you would change houses with the Mayor, 459 that I might get to you when I would.
I send you the first part of Wallenstein 460 with the proposition that we should study that in conjunction with the Thirty years' war, as I happen to have a loose copy. We had better omit the Lager and begin Die Piccolomini. The other part is Wallenstein's Tod. You shall have Joan of Arc, my grand favourite as a bonne bouche when you have got through Wallenstein, which will amply repay you for any trouble in translating it, and is not more difficult than your reading ought to be now. I have skimmed Manzoni, who has suffered sadly in being poured out of silver into pewter. The chapter on Philosophy and Theology is worth reading. 461 Miss Brabant sent me my Hyperion 462 with a note the other day. She had put no direction besides Coventry and the parcel had consequently been sent to some other Miss Evans and my choice little sentimental treasures alas! exposed to vulgar gaze. Miss B. begs me to tell her all I know of Rosehill and the inhabitants of "that Paradise." I shall hope to see its Eve to-morrow; in the meantime will you tell your Adam, who [with front serene governs] 463 in your Paradise, with my compliments or respects or love, whichever is proper and all three are true, that the trees are condemned to fall and be sold to Mr. Webb. 464 Thank you for the Manual which I have had so long. I trust I did not bestow those scratches on the cover. I have been trying to find a French book that you were not likely to have read but I do not think I have one, unless it be Gil Blas 465 which you are perhaps too virtuous to have read, though how any one can opine it to have a vicious tendency I am at a loss to conjecture. They might as well say that to condemn a person to eat a whole plum pudding would deprive him of all future relish for plain food.
Vale,
Mary Ann.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1843. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 119-120.
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood so art thou my beloved, among the daughters, 458 and I only wish you would change houses with the Mayor, 459 that I might get to you when I would.
I send you the first part of Wallenstein 460 with the proposition that we should study that in conjunction with the Thirty years' war, as I happen to have a loose copy. We had better omit the Lager and begin Die Piccolomini. The other part is Wallenstein's Tod. You shall have Joan of Arc, my grand favourite as a bonne bouche when you have got through Wallenstein, which will amply repay you for any trouble in translating it, and is not more difficult than your reading ought to be now. I have skimmed Manzoni, who has suffered sadly in being poured out of silver into pewter. The chapter on Philosophy and Theology is worth reading. 461 Miss Brabant sent me my Hyperion 462 with a note the other day. She had put no direction besides Coventry and the parcel had consequently been sent to some other Miss Evans and my choice little sentimental treasures alas! exposed to vulgar gaze. Miss B. begs me to tell her all I know of Rosehill and the inhabitants of "that Paradise." I shall hope to see its Eve to-morrow; in the meantime will you tell your Adam, who [with front serene governs] 463 in your Paradise, with my compliments or respects or love, whichever is proper and all three are true, that the trees are condemned to fall and be sold to Mr. Webb. 464 Thank you for the Manual which I have had so long. I trust I did not bestow those scratches on the cover. I have been trying to find a French book that you were not likely to have read but I do not think I have one, unless it be Gil Blas 465 which you are perhaps too virtuous to have read, though how any one can opine it to have a vicious tendency I am at a loss to conjecture. They might as well say that to condemn a person to eat a whole plum pudding would deprive him of all future relish for plain food.
Vale,
Mary Ann.
Signature
Mary Ann.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, [Foleshill, December 1842](1), 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/93207