GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 December 1867
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 December 1867
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 December 1867
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve
Date(s)
- 1867-12-30
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 December 1867
Text: Cross, III, 29-30.
It is very good and sweet of you to propose to come round for me on Sunday, and I shall cherish particularly the remembrance of that kindness. But on reading your letter, Mr Lewes objected, on grounds which I think just, to my going to any public manifestation without him, since [the reason for] his absence could not be divined by outsiders.
I am companioned by dyspepsia, and feel life a struggle under the leaden sky. Mme. Bodichon writes that in Sussex the air is cold and clear, and the woods and lanes dressed in wintry loveliness of fresh grassy patches, mingled with the soft grays and browns of the trees and hedges. Mr Harrison shed the agreeable light of his kind eyes on me yesterday for a brief space; but I hope I was more endurable to my visitors than to myself, else I think they will not come again. I object strongly to myself as a bundle of unpleasant sensations with a palpitating heart and awkward manners. Impossible to imagine the large charity I have for people who detest me. But don't you be one of them.
Text: Cross, III, 29-30.
It is very good and sweet of you to propose to come round for me on Sunday, and I shall cherish particularly the remembrance of that kindness. But on reading your letter, Mr Lewes objected, on grounds which I think just, to my going to any public manifestation without him, since [the reason for] his absence could not be divined by outsiders.
I am companioned by dyspepsia, and feel life a struggle under the leaden sky. Mme. Bodichon writes that in Sussex the air is cold and clear, and the woods and lanes dressed in wintry loveliness of fresh grassy patches, mingled with the soft grays and browns of the trees and hedges. Mr Harrison shed the agreeable light of his kind eyes on me yesterday for a brief space; but I hope I was more endurable to my visitors than to myself, else I think they will not come again. I object strongly to myself as a bundle of unpleasant sensations with a palpitating heart and awkward manners. Impossible to imagine the large charity I have for people who detest me. But don't you be one of them.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 30 December 1867, 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/93652