GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 10 October [1859]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 10 October [1859]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 10 October [1859]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1859-10-10
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 10 October [1859]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1859. Extracts published: Cross, II, 135-137.
Holly Lodge | October 10.
Dear Sara
It is pleasant to have to tell you that Mr. Bracebridge has been at last awakened to do the right thing. This morning came a letter 342 enclosing the following to me:
"Madam, I have much pleasure on receiving your declaration that" etc. etc., 343 "in replying that I frankly accept your declaration as the truth, and I shall repeat it, if the contrary is again asserted to me."
This is the first symptom we have had from him of common sense and of any acquaintance with what gentlemanly feeling demands. I am very thankful -- for it ends transactions with him.
Mr. Lewes is of so sensitive a temperament, and so used to feeling more angry and more glad on my behalf than his own, that he has been made, several mornings, quite unable to go on with his work by this irritating correspondence. It is all my fault, for if he didn't see in the first instance that I am completely upset by anything that arouses unloving emotions, he would never feel as he does about outer sayings and doings. No one is more indifferent than he is, to what is said about himself -- but when anything once takes hold of him he is as nervous as a fragile woman, and now that his health is so delicate he has to suffer a good while from what would otherwise be a transient agitation.
We are hoping to see Mr. Bray this week -- are we not right? Tell him he can't take us wrongly any day either at 1 o'clock, (lunch-time) or at half past 5 (dinner). I am much obliged to him for his good plan of sending the paragraph to various provincial papers. 344 No more about my business, let us hope, for a long while to come!
Haven't you almost done your printing?
The Congreves are settled at home again now -- blessing us with the sight of kind faces -- Mr. Congreve beginning his medical course. 345 With love all round
Ever thine
Marian.
Miss Hennell.
Delicious confusion of ideas! Mr. Lewes, walking in Wandsworth, saw a good woman cross over the street to speak to a blind man. She accosted him with, "Well, I knew you, though you are dark!"
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1859. Extracts published: Cross, II, 135-137.
Holly Lodge | October 10.
Dear Sara
It is pleasant to have to tell you that Mr. Bracebridge has been at last awakened to do the right thing. This morning came a letter 342 enclosing the following to me:
"Madam, I have much pleasure on receiving your declaration that" etc. etc., 343 "in replying that I frankly accept your declaration as the truth, and I shall repeat it, if the contrary is again asserted to me."
This is the first symptom we have had from him of common sense and of any acquaintance with what gentlemanly feeling demands. I am very thankful -- for it ends transactions with him.
Mr. Lewes is of so sensitive a temperament, and so used to feeling more angry and more glad on my behalf than his own, that he has been made, several mornings, quite unable to go on with his work by this irritating correspondence. It is all my fault, for if he didn't see in the first instance that I am completely upset by anything that arouses unloving emotions, he would never feel as he does about outer sayings and doings. No one is more indifferent than he is, to what is said about himself -- but when anything once takes hold of him he is as nervous as a fragile woman, and now that his health is so delicate he has to suffer a good while from what would otherwise be a transient agitation.
We are hoping to see Mr. Bray this week -- are we not right? Tell him he can't take us wrongly any day either at 1 o'clock, (lunch-time) or at half past 5 (dinner). I am much obliged to him for his good plan of sending the paragraph to various provincial papers. 344 No more about my business, let us hope, for a long while to come!
Haven't you almost done your printing?
The Congreves are settled at home again now -- blessing us with the sight of kind faces -- Mr. Congreve beginning his medical course. 345 With love all round
Ever thine
Marian.
Miss Hennell.
Delicious confusion of ideas! Mr. Lewes, walking in Wandsworth, saw a good woman cross over the street to speak to a blind man. She accosted him with, "Well, I knew you, though you are dark!"
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 10 October [1859], 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/94125