GE to [George Dransfield Brown], London, 8 December 1872
Title
GE to [George Dransfield Brown], London, 8 December 1872
Title
GE to [George Dransfield Brown], London, 8 December 1872
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
[George Dransfield Brown]
Date(s)
- 1872-12-08
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to [George Dransfield Brown], London, 8 December 1872
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 8. 72.
Dear Sir
I am much obliged by the kind interest manifested in your letter of the 4th.
Since then, I have been confirmed by one of the highest professional authorities in my impression that the words "bright dilated eyes" are not an incorrectness in relation to that stage of excitement from opium in which the subject feels and thinks vividly. In that stage, says my authority, although the pupils are slightly contracted, the eyes look large and bright, the eyelids being wide apart, the eyeballs tense and prominent. The dull eyes with marked contraction of the pupils, belong to a much more profound effect of opium than I meant to indicate in Lydgate's case.
I waited for this warrant from eminent experience before replying to your friendly letter, for which I thank you sincerely, valuing every help towards accuracy of presentation. If I had been convinced that my phrase contained a false description, I should have taken trouble to alter it in future issues of "Middlemarch."
Yours faithfully
M. E. Lewes.
(George Eliot)
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 8. 72.
Dear Sir
I am much obliged by the kind interest manifested in your letter of the 4th.
Since then, I have been confirmed by one of the highest professional authorities in my impression that the words "bright dilated eyes" are not an incorrectness in relation to that stage of excitement from opium in which the subject feels and thinks vividly. In that stage, says my authority, although the pupils are slightly contracted, the eyes look large and bright, the eyelids being wide apart, the eyeballs tense and prominent. The dull eyes with marked contraction of the pupils, belong to a much more profound effect of opium than I meant to indicate in Lydgate's case.
I waited for this warrant from eminent experience before replying to your friendly letter, for which I thank you sincerely, valuing every help towards accuracy of presentation. If I had been convinced that my phrase contained a false description, I should have taken trouble to alter it in future issues of "Middlemarch."
Yours faithfully
M. E. Lewes.
(George Eliot)
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to [George Dransfield Brown], London, 8 December 1872, 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/91957