GHL to Alexander Main, London, 2 January 1873
Title
GHL to Alexander Main, London, 2 January 1873
Title
GHL to Alexander Main, London, 2 January 1873
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Alexander Main
Date(s)
- 1873-01-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Alexander Main, London, 2 January 1873
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 73.
My dear Main
Lying ready, stamped for postage, is Mrs. Lewes's New Year's letter to you, and lo! your plaint of silence arrives. 688 She occupied herself last evening, while I was dining out, in assuring you of our real regard -- and all this time you were tormenting yourself with fantastic fears and thick coming fancies due, let us hope, to indigestion of Christmas cheer! -- due at any rate to an abnormal susceptibility. Be this a lesson to you! And in future be assured of this -- which (if you knew me better and my "brutal frankness") would need no assurance -- that whenever you say anything I do not like I shall certainly explode on you.
We have returned from our visit to that Scotch family I told you of before, whose fervent love and admiration of Dorothea equals your own, and of whom Prof. Sellar declared that the first article of their religion was "I believe in Mr. and Mrs. Lewes." But even their warmth could not drive out the effects of a chill, and Dorothea is still confined to her room with neuralgia and sore throat. I am glad to hear the "Sayings" are so lively. 689 A new edition will soon be called for; and I think the demand will be a permanent one.
It is pretty to think of you reading aloud to your mother. For some years my mother used to watch for my visits like a girl watching for her lover: she would sit at the window for hours before my regular time, and with the first glimpse of my "wide-awake" in the distance she would exclaim to her maid "There he is" -- and be happy for the rest of the day. You can imagine how I look back on those days and what a comfort it is to me to think that I never allowed other attractions to rob her of her one remaining joy. My father died when I was two years old, and with my mother were bound up all my early recollections. We lived together till I married. Her belief in me, and pride in me, you may estimate when I tell you that secretly she thought not of what a prize I had secured, but of the prize Dorothea had secured!
But I am getting garrulous, and as I suppose Mrs. Lewes told you of our grandchild's christening on the 20th there is nothing more but to say believe me
Yours ever
G. H. L.
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 73.
My dear Main
Lying ready, stamped for postage, is Mrs. Lewes's New Year's letter to you, and lo! your plaint of silence arrives. 688 She occupied herself last evening, while I was dining out, in assuring you of our real regard -- and all this time you were tormenting yourself with fantastic fears and thick coming fancies due, let us hope, to indigestion of Christmas cheer! -- due at any rate to an abnormal susceptibility. Be this a lesson to you! And in future be assured of this -- which (if you knew me better and my "brutal frankness") would need no assurance -- that whenever you say anything I do not like I shall certainly explode on you.
We have returned from our visit to that Scotch family I told you of before, whose fervent love and admiration of Dorothea equals your own, and of whom Prof. Sellar declared that the first article of their religion was "I believe in Mr. and Mrs. Lewes." But even their warmth could not drive out the effects of a chill, and Dorothea is still confined to her room with neuralgia and sore throat. I am glad to hear the "Sayings" are so lively. 689 A new edition will soon be called for; and I think the demand will be a permanent one.
It is pretty to think of you reading aloud to your mother. For some years my mother used to watch for my visits like a girl watching for her lover: she would sit at the window for hours before my regular time, and with the first glimpse of my "wide-awake" in the distance she would exclaim to her maid "There he is" -- and be happy for the rest of the day. You can imagine how I look back on those days and what a comfort it is to me to think that I never allowed other attractions to rob her of her one remaining joy. My father died when I was two years old, and with my mother were bound up all my early recollections. We lived together till I married. Her belief in me, and pride in me, you may estimate when I tell you that secretly she thought not of what a prize I had secured, but of the prize Dorothea had secured!
But I am getting garrulous, and as I suppose Mrs. Lewes told you of our grandchild's christening on the 20th there is nothing more but to say believe me
Yours ever
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Alexander Main, London, 2 January 1873, 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/94412