GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Gorey, 5 June 1857]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Gorey, 5 June 1857]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Gorey, 5 June 1857]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1857-06-05
Place
[Gorey]
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Gorey, 5 June 1857]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: about her marriage. June 8. 1857. Extracts published: Cross, I, 461.
Dear Sara
The news from Virtue and Co. 888 is very satisfactory, and I should think the edition will have moved off by the end of the year, for every purchaser of a cheap book like that begets two or three other purchasers. High priced books are lent; but cheap books are bought. I quite approve of your disinterring that strange beast, but I really give the preference to the wonderful Cydippes that we found yesterday floating in the sunny sea -- tiny crystal globes with delicate meridians of cilia, and long streamers spreading behind them as they float. I feel every day a greater disinclination for theories and arguments about the origin of things in the presence of all this mystery and beauty and pain and ugliness, that floods one with conflicting emotions.
Didn't you like the conclusion of Herbert Spencer's article in the W[estminster] R[eview]? There was more feeling in it than we generally get in his writing. 889 By the way, I dare say you have heard that he has made the acquaintance of the Miss Carters. 890 He seemed much pleased with them. Do they write to you often now? And have they not been interested in your book? Miss Julia Smith, I should think, would value it very highly. She seems to be relied on above all people by Barbara Smith as a friend ready to give help and sympathy under all circumstances.
Barbara has written us such descriptions of the splendour and romance to be found in Algiers, that we can't help envying people who can [do the Tropics] in miniature by going thither in 5 days for £12! Miss Parkes was there a little while, and is now I believe in Italy with Mrs. Jameson. I am so glad to think of her travelling with people who have hearts and souls, for the Savile Row establishment is not richly provided with those commodities. Alas! What skeletons there are in houses where things look so enviable! 891
We are reading [Aurora Leigh] for the third time with more enjoyment than ever. I know no book that gives me a deeper sense of communion with a large as well as beautiful mind. It is in process of appearing in a third edition, and no wonder. My head is getting so bad, that I must make haste to say what I have to say and be content to send you the shabbiest letter.
I have written to my Brother and my two sisters, telling them that I have changed my name and have a husband. Fanny has already answered me in a very kind letter. I have not yet heard from my Brother. I feel satisfied to have done this, for they are now acquainted with what is essential in my position, and if any utterly false report reaches them in the first instance, their minds will be prepared not to accept it without reserve. I do not think Chrissey will give up correspondence with me in any case, and that is the point I most care about, as I shall still be able to help her as far as my means will allow.
The "rumours" you mention have I dare say come through the Smiths and Mrs. Pears 892 -- friendly head-shakings and regrets which are meant in the best spirit. I have kept the subject so long before my mind, and have learned to see how much of the pain I have felt concerning my own family is really love of approbation in disguise, that I look calmly on the most disagreeable issues. If I live five years longer, the positive result of my existence on the side of truth and goodness will outweigh the small negative good that would have consisted in my not doing anything to shock others, and I can conceive no consequences that will make me repent the past. Do not misunderstand me and suppose that I think myself heroic or great in any way. Far enough from that! Faulty, miserably faulty I am -- but least of all faulty when others most blame.
Ever thine in headachiness
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: about her marriage. June 8. 1857. Extracts published: Cross, I, 461.
Dear Sara
The news from Virtue and Co. 888 is very satisfactory, and I should think the edition will have moved off by the end of the year, for every purchaser of a cheap book like that begets two or three other purchasers. High priced books are lent; but cheap books are bought. I quite approve of your disinterring that strange beast, but I really give the preference to the wonderful Cydippes that we found yesterday floating in the sunny sea -- tiny crystal globes with delicate meridians of cilia, and long streamers spreading behind them as they float. I feel every day a greater disinclination for theories and arguments about the origin of things in the presence of all this mystery and beauty and pain and ugliness, that floods one with conflicting emotions.
Didn't you like the conclusion of Herbert Spencer's article in the W[estminster] R[eview]? There was more feeling in it than we generally get in his writing. 889 By the way, I dare say you have heard that he has made the acquaintance of the Miss Carters. 890 He seemed much pleased with them. Do they write to you often now? And have they not been interested in your book? Miss Julia Smith, I should think, would value it very highly. She seems to be relied on above all people by Barbara Smith as a friend ready to give help and sympathy under all circumstances.
Barbara has written us such descriptions of the splendour and romance to be found in Algiers, that we can't help envying people who can [do the Tropics] in miniature by going thither in 5 days for £12! Miss Parkes was there a little while, and is now I believe in Italy with Mrs. Jameson. I am so glad to think of her travelling with people who have hearts and souls, for the Savile Row establishment is not richly provided with those commodities. Alas! What skeletons there are in houses where things look so enviable! 891
We are reading [Aurora Leigh] for the third time with more enjoyment than ever. I know no book that gives me a deeper sense of communion with a large as well as beautiful mind. It is in process of appearing in a third edition, and no wonder. My head is getting so bad, that I must make haste to say what I have to say and be content to send you the shabbiest letter.
I have written to my Brother and my two sisters, telling them that I have changed my name and have a husband. Fanny has already answered me in a very kind letter. I have not yet heard from my Brother. I feel satisfied to have done this, for they are now acquainted with what is essential in my position, and if any utterly false report reaches them in the first instance, their minds will be prepared not to accept it without reserve. I do not think Chrissey will give up correspondence with me in any case, and that is the point I most care about, as I shall still be able to help her as far as my means will allow.
The "rumours" you mention have I dare say come through the Smiths and Mrs. Pears 892 -- friendly head-shakings and regrets which are meant in the best spirit. I have kept the subject so long before my mind, and have learned to see how much of the pain I have felt concerning my own family is really love of approbation in disguise, that I look calmly on the most disagreeable issues. If I live five years longer, the positive result of my existence on the side of truth and goodness will outweigh the small negative good that would have consisted in my not doing anything to shock others, and I can conceive no consequences that will make me repent the past. Do not misunderstand me and suppose that I think myself heroic or great in any way. Far enough from that! Faulty, miserably faulty I am -- but least of all faulty when others most blame.
Ever thine in headachiness
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Gorey, 5 June 1857], 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/93850