GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [26 April 1854]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [26 April 1854]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [26 April 1854]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1854-04-26
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [26 April 1854]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: April 26. Hitherto unpublished.
Cambridge Street | Wednesday.
Dear Sara
Thanks for your last letter. Happily I need not decide on the motto 459 until the last.
I shall not be able to send you the appendix, I believe; indeed how I shall get to the end of it myself I don't know, for I have been almost constantly ill for the last ten days and all head work is literally an agony -- or wrestling -- to me. There are some passages which you disappoint me very much by not understanding and I should like to write to you about them, but I haven't strength or spirit to do it. I am too entirely without hope about the book to be sensitive. The press will do nothing but abuse or ridicule it -- which for those who know what "the press" means, as I do, is not of the slightest consequence to one's own view, but must always affect a publisher's. I dare say Mr. Chapman will think his case pitiable, but if he knew the amount of phosphorous it requires to translate such a book (which he does not) he would think it still more pitiable to have only two shillings a page for it. 460
Give my love to the married couple who are celebrating their wedding day 461 in sackcloth and ashes. Tell Mr. Bray I wish he would write to me and let me know how things are really going on. For you all, I desire immense things, but for myself nothing seems desirable but to get out of this headachy world or rather to take my headachy body out of it and make room for a more healthy existence.
Ever yours affectionately
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: April 26. Hitherto unpublished.
Cambridge Street | Wednesday.
Dear Sara
Thanks for your last letter. Happily I need not decide on the motto 459 until the last.
I shall not be able to send you the appendix, I believe; indeed how I shall get to the end of it myself I don't know, for I have been almost constantly ill for the last ten days and all head work is literally an agony -- or wrestling -- to me. There are some passages which you disappoint me very much by not understanding and I should like to write to you about them, but I haven't strength or spirit to do it. I am too entirely without hope about the book to be sensitive. The press will do nothing but abuse or ridicule it -- which for those who know what "the press" means, as I do, is not of the slightest consequence to one's own view, but must always affect a publisher's. I dare say Mr. Chapman will think his case pitiable, but if he knew the amount of phosphorous it requires to translate such a book (which he does not) he would think it still more pitiable to have only two shillings a page for it. 460
Give my love to the married couple who are celebrating their wedding day 461 in sackcloth and ashes. Tell Mr. Bray I wish he would write to me and let me know how things are really going on. For you all, I desire immense things, but for myself nothing seems desirable but to get out of this headachy world or rather to take my headachy body out of it and make room for a more healthy existence.
Ever yours affectionately
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [26 April 1854], 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/93960