GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 May 1868
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 May 1868
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 May 1868
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1868-05-07
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 May 1868
MS: Yale. Extract published: Cross, III, 49-50.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
May 7. 1868.
My dear Cara
The dear green letter was very welcome this morning. Mr. Lewes handed it to me saying that the writing was a certain barrister's of our acquaintance, but I knew it at once as a little fist which I prefer to the barrister's. 756
Yes, I am at rest now -- only a few pages of revise to look at more. My chief excitement and pleasure in the work are over; for when I have once written anything and it is gone out of my power, I think of it as little as possible. Next to the doing of the thing, of course, Mr. Lewes's delight in it is the cream of all sympathy, though I care enough about the sympathy of others to be very grateful for any they give me.
Don't you imagine how the people who consider writing simply as a money-getting profession will despise me for choosing a work by which I could only get hundreds where for a novel I get thousands? I cannot help asking you to admire what my husband is, compared with many possible husbands -- I mean, in urging me to produce a poem rather than anything in a worldly sense more profitable. I expect a good deal of disgust to be felt towards me in many quarters for doing what was not looked for from me and becoming unreadable to many who have hitherto found me readable and debateable. Religion and novels every ignorant person feels competent to give an opinion upon; but en fait de po'e9sie, a large number of them "only read Shakspeare." But enough of that.
Spiritually, we are happy, but bodily, we are wretches. Torquay was beautiful, and the Zoology went on gloriously there. But it lowered Mr. Lewes's pulse, and he has been headachy ever since we came back. I am not headachy, but I am feeble and flaccid and piteous to behold. We are going to Germany and Switzerland in June, but we don't tell our servants because they will begin to wail.
Mr. Spencer returned from Italy sooner than he intended, disappointed in the sanitary effects of travelling. 757 The long railway journeys were eminently unpleasant to him. He is better, however, and talks with much spirit about his experiences, of which you will probably hear when you come to town -- so I will not anticipate any of his matter.
I am much interested and gladdened for Sara's sake that Miss Alice Carter can be so precious a friend to her. It is an especially pretty result of their earlier relation to each other. 758 Give my love to Sara, and "good speed" through the troubles of proof-correcting. I shall revive my acquaintance with her first volume in preparation for the second.
Mrs. Cash sent me her book with a very kind letter about a week or ten days ago. I am rejoiced to find that she looks forward to the possibility of her taking a journey.
Best love all round. You will have the volume at the end of May -- but don't write, because I shall probably be gone.
Always thine
Marian
By the way, should the volume be sent to Sydenham or to Coventry?
MS: Yale. Extract published: Cross, III, 49-50.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
May 7. 1868.
My dear Cara
The dear green letter was very welcome this morning. Mr. Lewes handed it to me saying that the writing was a certain barrister's of our acquaintance, but I knew it at once as a little fist which I prefer to the barrister's. 756
Yes, I am at rest now -- only a few pages of revise to look at more. My chief excitement and pleasure in the work are over; for when I have once written anything and it is gone out of my power, I think of it as little as possible. Next to the doing of the thing, of course, Mr. Lewes's delight in it is the cream of all sympathy, though I care enough about the sympathy of others to be very grateful for any they give me.
Don't you imagine how the people who consider writing simply as a money-getting profession will despise me for choosing a work by which I could only get hundreds where for a novel I get thousands? I cannot help asking you to admire what my husband is, compared with many possible husbands -- I mean, in urging me to produce a poem rather than anything in a worldly sense more profitable. I expect a good deal of disgust to be felt towards me in many quarters for doing what was not looked for from me and becoming unreadable to many who have hitherto found me readable and debateable. Religion and novels every ignorant person feels competent to give an opinion upon; but en fait de po'e9sie, a large number of them "only read Shakspeare." But enough of that.
Spiritually, we are happy, but bodily, we are wretches. Torquay was beautiful, and the Zoology went on gloriously there. But it lowered Mr. Lewes's pulse, and he has been headachy ever since we came back. I am not headachy, but I am feeble and flaccid and piteous to behold. We are going to Germany and Switzerland in June, but we don't tell our servants because they will begin to wail.
Mr. Spencer returned from Italy sooner than he intended, disappointed in the sanitary effects of travelling. 757 The long railway journeys were eminently unpleasant to him. He is better, however, and talks with much spirit about his experiences, of which you will probably hear when you come to town -- so I will not anticipate any of his matter.
I am much interested and gladdened for Sara's sake that Miss Alice Carter can be so precious a friend to her. It is an especially pretty result of their earlier relation to each other. 758 Give my love to Sara, and "good speed" through the troubles of proof-correcting. I shall revive my acquaintance with her first volume in preparation for the second.
Mrs. Cash sent me her book with a very kind letter about a week or ten days ago. I am rejoiced to find that she looks forward to the possibility of her taking a journey.
Best love all round. You will have the volume at the end of May -- but don't write, because I shall probably be gone.
Always thine
Marian
By the way, should the volume be sent to Sydenham or to Coventry?
Signature
Marian
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 7 May 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/93313