GE and GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 5 May 1859
Title
GE and GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 5 May 1859
Title
GE and GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 5 May 1859
Sender
George Eliot, George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1859-05-05
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE and GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 5 May 1859
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Extracts published: Cross, II, 106-107.
Holly Lodge, May 5. 59.
God bless you, dearest Barbara, for your love and sympathy. You are the first friend who has given any symptom of knowing me -- the first heart that has recognized me in a book which has come from my heart of hearts. But keep the secret solemnly till I give you leave to tell it, and give way to no impulses of triumphant affection. You have sense enough to know how important the incognito has been, and we are anxious to keep it up a few months longer.
Curiously enough, my old Coventry friends who have certainly read the '91Westminster'92 and the '91Times'92 and have probably by this time read the book itself, have given no sign of recognition. But a certain Mr. Liggins whom rumour has fixed on as the author of my books and whom they have believed in, has probably screened me from their vision. -- I am a very blessed woman, am I not? to have all this reason for being glad that I have lived, in spite of my sins and sorrows -- or rather, by reason of my sins and sorrows. I have had no time of exultation; on the contrary these last months have been sadder than usual to me, and I have thought more of the future and the much work that remains to be done in life than of anything that has been achieved. But I think your letter today gave me more joy -- more heart-glow, than all the letters or reviews or the other testimonies of success that have come to me since the evenings when I read aloud my manuscripts -- to my dear dear husband, and he laughed and cried alternately and then rushed to kiss me. He is the prime blessing that has made all the rest possible to me -- giving me a response to everything I have written, a response that I could confide in as a proof that I had not mistaken my work.
'abI was really glad to read the last passage in your letter about Bessie and the E.W.J., because I had felt very strongly what you express and had wished that your affection for her might not make you too tender to her mistakes. She needs only the sort of correction your mind could give if you were near her. I was quite pained by the absurd suspicion [about ten words indecipherable] the English Woman's Journal. I have been so much vexed by several things in her writing lately that I feel quite guilty for having praised it so much when I saw her. It was [one word] a coterie of women and it excluded [one word].'bb
But we will talk of everything when you come. Remember, you can have a bed. And do make the dear Doctor come with you to England. It is so sad to think of his staying behind, and we want to see him again. These are cogent reasons, in our opinion, for his coming, and like the rest of the world, we expect men to be guided by our reasons rather than their own. Ever dear Barbara
Your loving and grateful
Marian.
[In GHL's hand.]
Dear Barbara
You're a darling, and I have always said so! I don't know that I ever said it to you -- my modesty may have held me back, as usual; but I say it now. You are the person on whose sympathy we both counted, and only just escaped having the secret confided to you before you went; but we are glad you found it out for yourself. The success of the book is inoui over 3000 copies have been sold already and as 500 is a good success for a novel, you may estimate by that detail what my Polly has achieved. Opinion seems unanimous, for once. The fun is that except Dickens and those who believe his word everybody believes the author to be a man, and mostly a clergyman. "University man" say all the Oxford and Cambridge gents. -- But, dear Barbara, you must not call her Marian Evans again: that individual is extinct, rolled up, mashed, absorbed in the Lewesian magnificence! If you know Polly, as I believe you do, you must know how much good -- heart-good -- your letter has done her. We constantly talk of your Doctor and hope to see him.
Ever your faithful
G. H. L.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Extracts published: Cross, II, 106-107.
Holly Lodge, May 5. 59.
God bless you, dearest Barbara, for your love and sympathy. You are the first friend who has given any symptom of knowing me -- the first heart that has recognized me in a book which has come from my heart of hearts. But keep the secret solemnly till I give you leave to tell it, and give way to no impulses of triumphant affection. You have sense enough to know how important the incognito has been, and we are anxious to keep it up a few months longer.
Curiously enough, my old Coventry friends who have certainly read the '91Westminster'92 and the '91Times'92 and have probably by this time read the book itself, have given no sign of recognition. But a certain Mr. Liggins whom rumour has fixed on as the author of my books and whom they have believed in, has probably screened me from their vision. -- I am a very blessed woman, am I not? to have all this reason for being glad that I have lived, in spite of my sins and sorrows -- or rather, by reason of my sins and sorrows. I have had no time of exultation; on the contrary these last months have been sadder than usual to me, and I have thought more of the future and the much work that remains to be done in life than of anything that has been achieved. But I think your letter today gave me more joy -- more heart-glow, than all the letters or reviews or the other testimonies of success that have come to me since the evenings when I read aloud my manuscripts -- to my dear dear husband, and he laughed and cried alternately and then rushed to kiss me. He is the prime blessing that has made all the rest possible to me -- giving me a response to everything I have written, a response that I could confide in as a proof that I had not mistaken my work.
'abI was really glad to read the last passage in your letter about Bessie and the E.W.J., because I had felt very strongly what you express and had wished that your affection for her might not make you too tender to her mistakes. She needs only the sort of correction your mind could give if you were near her. I was quite pained by the absurd suspicion [about ten words indecipherable] the English Woman's Journal. I have been so much vexed by several things in her writing lately that I feel quite guilty for having praised it so much when I saw her. It was [one word] a coterie of women and it excluded [one word].'bb
But we will talk of everything when you come. Remember, you can have a bed. And do make the dear Doctor come with you to England. It is so sad to think of his staying behind, and we want to see him again. These are cogent reasons, in our opinion, for his coming, and like the rest of the world, we expect men to be guided by our reasons rather than their own. Ever dear Barbara
Your loving and grateful
Marian.
[In GHL's hand.]
Dear Barbara
You're a darling, and I have always said so! I don't know that I ever said it to you -- my modesty may have held me back, as usual; but I say it now. You are the person on whose sympathy we both counted, and only just escaped having the secret confided to you before you went; but we are glad you found it out for yourself. The success of the book is inoui over 3000 copies have been sold already and as 500 is a good success for a novel, you may estimate by that detail what my Polly has achieved. Opinion seems unanimous, for once. The fun is that except Dickens and those who believe his word everybody believes the author to be a man, and mostly a clergyman. "University man" say all the Oxford and Cambridge gents. -- But, dear Barbara, you must not call her Marian Evans again: that individual is extinct, rolled up, mashed, absorbed in the Lewesian magnificence! If you know Polly, as I believe you do, you must know how much good -- heart-good -- your letter has done her. We constantly talk of your Doctor and hope to see him.
Ever your faithful
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, GE and GHL to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, Wandsworth, 5 May 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/91861