GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 8 March 1864
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 8 March 1864
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 8 March 1864
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve
Date(s)
- 1864-03-08
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 8 March 1864
Text: Cross, II, 379-380.
If you were anybody but yourself I should dislike you, because I have to write letters to you. As it is, your qualities triumph even over the vice of being in Italy (too far off for a note of three lines), and expecting to hear from me, though I fear I should be graceless enough to let you expect in vain if I did not care very much to hear from you, and did not find myself getting uneasy when many weeks have been passed in ignorance about you.
I do hope to hear that you got your fortnight of sight-seeing before leaving Rome -- at least, you would surely go well over the great galleries. If not, I shall be vexed with you, and I shall only be consoled for your not going to Venice by the chance of the Austrians being driven or bought out of it -- on no slighter grounds. For I suppose you will not go to Italy again for a long, long while, so as to leave any prospect of the omission being made up for by-and-by.
Text: Cross, II, 379-380.
If you were anybody but yourself I should dislike you, because I have to write letters to you. As it is, your qualities triumph even over the vice of being in Italy (too far off for a note of three lines), and expecting to hear from me, though I fear I should be graceless enough to let you expect in vain if I did not care very much to hear from you, and did not find myself getting uneasy when many weeks have been passed in ignorance about you.
I do hope to hear that you got your fortnight of sight-seeing before leaving Rome -- at least, you would surely go well over the great galleries. If not, I shall be vexed with you, and I shall only be consoled for your not going to Venice by the chance of the Austrians being driven or bought out of it -- on no slighter grounds. For I suppose you will not go to Italy again for a long, long while, so as to leave any prospect of the omission being made up for by-and-by.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 8 March 1864, 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/93663