GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 September 1862
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 September 1862
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 September 1862
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Francois D'Albert-Durade
Date(s)
- 1862-09-23
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 September 1862
Text: Composite from Walter V. Daniell Catalogue, July 1903, item 241, and Cross, New Edition, pp. 354-355.
He went to Spa for a fortnight and found the experiment successful. Quiet rambles in the morning and chats in the evening with Sir E. L. Bulwer and other semi-invalids were such excellent medicine that he came back to me looking bright and strong again. . . . [The Small House at Allington] is by our excellent friend Mr Anthony Trollope -- one of the heartiest, most genuine, moral and generous men we know. His brother, too, Mr Thomas Adolphus Trollope, who has resided at Florence for twenty years, is very much valued by us. They are sons, you know, of the Mrs Trollope whose name must be familiar to you as an authoress, even if you have known nothing of her personally.
I have not read [Les Mis'e9rables,] 109 having been for a long while exclusively occupied with old Florentine literature; but Mr Lewes told me enough of the earlier volumes to make me understand your feeling about it. If any writer of less name than Hugo had made such a mistake in art as to give that long descriptive account of a character (the bishop) who has so short a r'f4le dramatically, the critics would have surely complained. Yet as it is, Mr Lewes tells me that even 'c9mile Mont'e9gut found the art of the first two volumes altogether admirable.
Text: Composite from Walter V. Daniell Catalogue, July 1903, item 241, and Cross, New Edition, pp. 354-355.
He went to Spa for a fortnight and found the experiment successful. Quiet rambles in the morning and chats in the evening with Sir E. L. Bulwer and other semi-invalids were such excellent medicine that he came back to me looking bright and strong again. . . . [The Small House at Allington] is by our excellent friend Mr Anthony Trollope -- one of the heartiest, most genuine, moral and generous men we know. His brother, too, Mr Thomas Adolphus Trollope, who has resided at Florence for twenty years, is very much valued by us. They are sons, you know, of the Mrs Trollope whose name must be familiar to you as an authoress, even if you have known nothing of her personally.
I have not read [Les Mis'e9rables,] 109 having been for a long while exclusively occupied with old Florentine literature; but Mr Lewes told me enough of the earlier volumes to make me understand your feeling about it. If any writer of less name than Hugo had made such a mistake in art as to give that long descriptive account of a character (the bishop) who has so short a r'f4le dramatically, the critics would have surely complained. Yet as it is, Mr Lewes tells me that even 'c9mile Mont'e9gut found the art of the first two volumes altogether admirable.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 September 1862, 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/92354