GE to Alexander Main, London, 1 January 1873
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 1 January 1873
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 1 January 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Alexander Main
Date(s)
- 1873-01-01
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Alexander Main, London, 1 January 1873
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Mostly published: Cross, New Edition, p. 504.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
New Year's Day 1873.
My dear Mr. Main
Your affectionate greeting to me and Mr. Lewes was very sweet to our feelings. We found it on our return from the country where we had been to spend our Christmas with a family of good hearty friends. Unhappily, I brought back a sad face-ache from cold, which has since turned into sore-throat and has kept me a dolorous prisoner, occupied chiefly in bearing pain. This is my small share of the world's sorrow. In all other respects we are as happy as even your generous regard could wish us to be. For Mr. Lewes's health is just now untroubled, and with those who are nearest to us all is well.
Until this evening I have not felt equal to writing even a brief note, but now that I am a little relieved, my first desire is to thank you for a whole year's sympathy, of which your last letter was the closing chord. I trust that it will always be a satisfactory thought to you that you came as a cheering faith-creating influence to me when I was writing "Middlemarch" under all the obstructions of feeble health, occasionally even of illness that made me fear lest I should never be able to carry out my conception. Always, a letter from you gave me proof that I had made myself understood, and that no care to say the right word would be thrown away. Amid all the considerable trials of existence, men and women can nevertheless greatly help each other; and while we can help each other it is worth while to live. Let it increase your confidence in this sort of value which your life may always have, that you have really helped me simply by writing out your thoughts and feelings to me.
A week or two ago I had a letter from some corner of London beginning "I am a lawyer's clerk, young and poor and ignorant," and ending with a prayer for a cheaper edition of Middlemarch, "but not too cheap," lest paper and print should be bad, and men of the writer's class were willing to pinch for the sake of paying for a book they wanted. You may imagine that I am more encouraged by such a letter than by many laudatory notices.
Our dim knowledge of your life hinders us from making our affectionate wishes for you as definite as we should like to do, but we both hope to have much reason for joy on your behalf in the coming years -- years in which we desire to be your trusted friends.
I fear that my letter has a little of the face-ache in it, but you will allow for that, and accept it as a proof that I would rather write in an invalid fashion than leave the year to begin without making you a sign of my remembrances. I am always
Sincerely yours
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Mostly published: Cross, New Edition, p. 504.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
New Year's Day 1873.
My dear Mr. Main
Your affectionate greeting to me and Mr. Lewes was very sweet to our feelings. We found it on our return from the country where we had been to spend our Christmas with a family of good hearty friends. Unhappily, I brought back a sad face-ache from cold, which has since turned into sore-throat and has kept me a dolorous prisoner, occupied chiefly in bearing pain. This is my small share of the world's sorrow. In all other respects we are as happy as even your generous regard could wish us to be. For Mr. Lewes's health is just now untroubled, and with those who are nearest to us all is well.
Until this evening I have not felt equal to writing even a brief note, but now that I am a little relieved, my first desire is to thank you for a whole year's sympathy, of which your last letter was the closing chord. I trust that it will always be a satisfactory thought to you that you came as a cheering faith-creating influence to me when I was writing "Middlemarch" under all the obstructions of feeble health, occasionally even of illness that made me fear lest I should never be able to carry out my conception. Always, a letter from you gave me proof that I had made myself understood, and that no care to say the right word would be thrown away. Amid all the considerable trials of existence, men and women can nevertheless greatly help each other; and while we can help each other it is worth while to live. Let it increase your confidence in this sort of value which your life may always have, that you have really helped me simply by writing out your thoughts and feelings to me.
A week or two ago I had a letter from some corner of London beginning "I am a lawyer's clerk, young and poor and ignorant," and ending with a prayer for a cheaper edition of Middlemarch, "but not too cheap," lest paper and print should be bad, and men of the writer's class were willing to pinch for the sake of paying for a book they wanted. You may imagine that I am more encouraged by such a letter than by many laudatory notices.
Our dim knowledge of your life hinders us from making our affectionate wishes for you as definite as we should like to do, but we both hope to have much reason for joy on your behalf in the coming years -- years in which we desire to be your trusted friends.
I fear that my letter has a little of the face-ache in it, but you will allow for that, and accept it as a proof that I would rather write in an invalid fashion than leave the year to begin without making you a sign of my remembrances. I am always
Sincerely yours
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Alexander Main, London, 1 January 1873, 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/91982