GE to Charles Ritter, Witley, 23 July 1877
Title
GE to Charles Ritter, Witley, 23 July 1877
Title
GE to Charles Ritter, Witley, 23 July 1877
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Ritter
Date(s)
- 1877-07-23
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Charles Ritter, Witley, 23 July 1877
MS: Biblioth'e8que Publique et Universitaire, Geneva. Extracts published: Cross, New Edition, p. 565.
The Heights | Witley | Godalming | July 23. 77.
My dear Sir
I have to thank you doubly. First, for your charming letter of the 15th and next for the present of your Translations from my books, 726 which have reached us in all safety. Mr. Lewes at once forwarded Mr. Main's copy as you desired.
Pray count yourself among the helpful influences of my life, and believe that when I am recalling the reasons I have had for being of good courage, the possession of such a reader as yourself is, and will always be, one of my most precious remembrances. I feel quite sure, from having had an interview with you, that you are nervously sensitive enough to enter into all the difficulties of a too susceptible nature, easily repressed and even paralyzed by signs of misunderstanding. And because of this ready sympathy, you can choose just the right means of cheering a rather morbidly diffident person like myself. The extract you have sent me from your correspondent's letter shows her to be a reader whom one can rejoice in. There is a kind of praise, a kind of interest expressed in one's books which can be more distasteful than neglect. But your friend has a delicate selectness of phrase which marks her as an uncommon person. 727
Our son has been with us for a couple of days, and he read your translations admiringly, thinking that you had wonderfully overcome the difficulties of a task with which he is not unacquainted, having made translations from Platt-deutsch as well as High German. 728 And it is only those who have tried to render one language into another with scrupulosity that can estimate what is meritorious in such work.
You kindly ask about my health. It has been troublesome ever since we came into the pure air of this lovely country -- a most uncomfortable paradox. But I have been better for the last week, and at present I think that Mr. Lewes's frequent headaches are a worse grievance to me than my own ailments.
He sends his best regards with mine and adds his thanks for his share in the benefit of your work and of your invaluable sympathy. Believe me
Sincerely yours
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Biblioth'e8que Publique et Universitaire, Geneva. Extracts published: Cross, New Edition, p. 565.
The Heights | Witley | Godalming | July 23. 77.
My dear Sir
I have to thank you doubly. First, for your charming letter of the 15th and next for the present of your Translations from my books, 726 which have reached us in all safety. Mr. Lewes at once forwarded Mr. Main's copy as you desired.
Pray count yourself among the helpful influences of my life, and believe that when I am recalling the reasons I have had for being of good courage, the possession of such a reader as yourself is, and will always be, one of my most precious remembrances. I feel quite sure, from having had an interview with you, that you are nervously sensitive enough to enter into all the difficulties of a too susceptible nature, easily repressed and even paralyzed by signs of misunderstanding. And because of this ready sympathy, you can choose just the right means of cheering a rather morbidly diffident person like myself. The extract you have sent me from your correspondent's letter shows her to be a reader whom one can rejoice in. There is a kind of praise, a kind of interest expressed in one's books which can be more distasteful than neglect. But your friend has a delicate selectness of phrase which marks her as an uncommon person. 727
Our son has been with us for a couple of days, and he read your translations admiringly, thinking that you had wonderfully overcome the difficulties of a task with which he is not unacquainted, having made translations from Platt-deutsch as well as High German. 728 And it is only those who have tried to render one language into another with scrupulosity that can estimate what is meritorious in such work.
You kindly ask about my health. It has been troublesome ever since we came into the pure air of this lovely country -- a most uncomfortable paradox. But I have been better for the last week, and at present I think that Mr. Lewes's frequent headaches are a worse grievance to me than my own ailments.
He sends his best regards with mine and adds his thanks for his share in the benefit of your work and of your invaluable sympathy. Believe me
Sincerely yours
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Ritter, Witley, 23 July 1877, 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/92258