GE and GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [28 September 1859]
Title
GE and GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [28 September 1859]
Title
GE and GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [28 September 1859]
Sender
George Eliot, George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1859-09-28
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE and GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [28 September 1859]
MS: Yale. Envelope: Charles Bray Esq. | Ivy Cottage | Radford Road | Coventry. On the back GE has written, "Letters arrived." Postmarks: LONDON-S.W | 3 | SP 29 | 59; COVENTRY | SP 30 | 59. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | Wednesday Evening.
Dear Friend
We have been away from here ever since Monday morning, and I have only read your letter this evening on our return. One from Mr. Bracebridge also awaited us, intimating that he has received Mr. Lewes's letter, and apparently, so far as we can understand what he means, referring us to something he has written to you. 325 Mr. Lewes wishes to see the letter in question, as Mr. Bracebridge's reply to him contains no assurance that he will not continue to spread the falsehood concerning Mr. Liggins's contribution of materials.
My last letter was written to you in much hurry, and anxiety lest you should incur some blame from Mr. Bracebridge, and I felt, immediately that it had been sent off, that we were guilty of a logical blunder in supposing that such a letter could be of any use to you. If your offence consisted in the initial fact of having sent me the letters, no apology from me could excuse you. But I do hope I shall learn that you have not incurred any blame.
So far from regarding his communications to you as private, I have reason to believe that he had already sent -- or was about to send -- the same statements to the Daily News. One of the editors 326 of that paper told me on Saturday that they had recently had a letter containing a list of the originals of all the characters in "Adam Bede," but he had not taken note of the signature. The letter was immediately consigned to the waste paper basket.
I am not peculiar, you perceive, in my opinion of such communications. I should be sorry to judge too harshly of any one, because his conduct happened to have an unpleasant effect on myself. Mr. Bracebridge, I dare say, is a man of more amiability than judgment or conscientiousness, but it is possible to exercise all charity towards him without casting any sophistical light on his conduct -- without failing to express strong moral disapprobation of a rash intrusion into the privacies of another mind. Even if the inquirer were of a far higher intellectual order than Mr. Bracebridge, such an intrusion could issue in nothing but false conceptions.
Those who really love and venerate art and the artist are never found to offer a tribute in this form: this "incense," I fancy, is intended for other nostrils than those of the author, who sees a false history of his creations published to the world in utter powerlessness to contradict it; for people of any note are unable to write to the newspapers without the most disagreeable results. I have been accused in London of having got up the Liggins story in order to raise a hubbub about my book!
When any "love" comes to me, I think I shall recognize it. There is no pressure of the hand, no kind hearty word, that I have not registered. They have not been many -- the fewest often where I expected the most. I have not been unmindful of any sympathetic word you have said or written to me -- and I think that sort of insensibility will not come into the list of my sins.
Ever yours affectionately
Marian.
[In GHL's hand.]
P.S. My dear Bray
I wish to see Mr. Bracebridge's letter because I have every possible doubt respecting the man and his motives. Nothing but miserable vanity is moving him, according to my belief. I do not at all agree with you either in your defense of him or in your feeling on the subject. Although I wish to see this letter I think that in future, unless there is anything important for us to know, it will be well not to mention what is said about Marian and her books: it can only give her uneasiness or pain, and she has already had too much of that to suffer; making us both heartily wish we had never stayed in England after publication -- or still better never been such fools as to trust the secret to one human being. -- We know you too well not to be sure you mean to do the kindest in all cases; and you know her too well not to understand how "worrying" interferes with "work."
Your "myth" and "modest young American" were delicious! -- This p.s. has turned out a letter!
Ever faithfully yours,
G. H. Lewes.
MS: Yale. Envelope: Charles Bray Esq. | Ivy Cottage | Radford Road | Coventry. On the back GE has written, "Letters arrived." Postmarks: LONDON-S.W | 3 | SP 29 | 59; COVENTRY | SP 30 | 59. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | Wednesday Evening.
Dear Friend
We have been away from here ever since Monday morning, and I have only read your letter this evening on our return. One from Mr. Bracebridge also awaited us, intimating that he has received Mr. Lewes's letter, and apparently, so far as we can understand what he means, referring us to something he has written to you. 325 Mr. Lewes wishes to see the letter in question, as Mr. Bracebridge's reply to him contains no assurance that he will not continue to spread the falsehood concerning Mr. Liggins's contribution of materials.
My last letter was written to you in much hurry, and anxiety lest you should incur some blame from Mr. Bracebridge, and I felt, immediately that it had been sent off, that we were guilty of a logical blunder in supposing that such a letter could be of any use to you. If your offence consisted in the initial fact of having sent me the letters, no apology from me could excuse you. But I do hope I shall learn that you have not incurred any blame.
So far from regarding his communications to you as private, I have reason to believe that he had already sent -- or was about to send -- the same statements to the Daily News. One of the editors 326 of that paper told me on Saturday that they had recently had a letter containing a list of the originals of all the characters in "Adam Bede," but he had not taken note of the signature. The letter was immediately consigned to the waste paper basket.
I am not peculiar, you perceive, in my opinion of such communications. I should be sorry to judge too harshly of any one, because his conduct happened to have an unpleasant effect on myself. Mr. Bracebridge, I dare say, is a man of more amiability than judgment or conscientiousness, but it is possible to exercise all charity towards him without casting any sophistical light on his conduct -- without failing to express strong moral disapprobation of a rash intrusion into the privacies of another mind. Even if the inquirer were of a far higher intellectual order than Mr. Bracebridge, such an intrusion could issue in nothing but false conceptions.
Those who really love and venerate art and the artist are never found to offer a tribute in this form: this "incense," I fancy, is intended for other nostrils than those of the author, who sees a false history of his creations published to the world in utter powerlessness to contradict it; for people of any note are unable to write to the newspapers without the most disagreeable results. I have been accused in London of having got up the Liggins story in order to raise a hubbub about my book!
When any "love" comes to me, I think I shall recognize it. There is no pressure of the hand, no kind hearty word, that I have not registered. They have not been many -- the fewest often where I expected the most. I have not been unmindful of any sympathetic word you have said or written to me -- and I think that sort of insensibility will not come into the list of my sins.
Ever yours affectionately
Marian.
[In GHL's hand.]
P.S. My dear Bray
I wish to see Mr. Bracebridge's letter because I have every possible doubt respecting the man and his motives. Nothing but miserable vanity is moving him, according to my belief. I do not at all agree with you either in your defense of him or in your feeling on the subject. Although I wish to see this letter I think that in future, unless there is anything important for us to know, it will be well not to mention what is said about Marian and her books: it can only give her uneasiness or pain, and she has already had too much of that to suffer; making us both heartily wish we had never stayed in England after publication -- or still better never been such fools as to trust the secret to one human being. -- We know you too well not to be sure you mean to do the kindest in all cases; and you know her too well not to understand how "worrying" interferes with "work."
Your "myth" and "modest young American" were delicious! -- This p.s. has turned out a letter!
Ever faithfully yours,
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, GE and GHL to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, [28 September 1859], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91855