The Crofton Boys, within The Playfellow

The Crofton Boys, within The Playfellow

Martineau, Harriet

London: Routledge & Sons, 1841. The Playfellow, pp. 381-502

Internet Archive

1841

George Eliot to Mrs. Charles Bray, 25 May 1845. “Your books are come for the school and I have covered them, at least those that I think you will like for the children -- two or three are quite for grown-up people. ‘Hoary Head’ seems to be a book against infidelity. ‘Three experiments of living’ is all about a physician and his wife living too extravagantly, very good in its way, but not fit for our urchins. ‘The log cabin’ is another large book also very good but too mature. I cannot think how Miss A. G. could recommend them for children. What an exquisite little thing that is of Harriet Martineau's -- The Crofton Boys. I have had some delightful crying over it. There are two or three lines in it that would feed one's soul for a month. Hugh's mother says to him, speaking of people who have permanent sorrows, "They soon had a new and delicious pleasure which none but the bitterly disappointed can feel -- the pleasure of rousing their souls to bear pain, and of agreeing with God silently, when nobody knows what is in their hearts."” GEL 1: 192

Martineau, Harriet, The Crofton Boys, within The Playfellow, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57001

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