GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 November 1877
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 November 1877
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 November 1877
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Francois D'Albert-Durade
Date(s)
- 1877-11-27
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 November 1877
Text: Copy by D'Albert-Durade in Tinker Collection, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory | 21 North Bank | Regent's Park | November 27. 77.
My dear Friend
I have just received and read aloud to my husband your kind letter and answer it at once that I may not again seem [un]mindful of my tenderly remembered and remembering friends.
Your account of Madame D'Albert comforts me. That she retains her soundness of mind and can enjoy this change of visiting you daily at your post 782 gives me a delighted sense that life is not a burthen to her. Assure her of my constant love and lively memory of her goodness. It seems rather astonishing that Mr. Alphonse has a grown up daughter! We realize our own age chiefly in the growth of the young ones who date from our latter time. Our now only son Charles, has a third little daughter who was christened Eleanor about three weeks ago. In these children and in all other conditions of our life we are thoroughly happy, and my health has of late been much improved. I hardly know whether I told you that we have bought a house in the loveliest part of Surrey for a summer residence, no longer liking so well to travel abroad as we used to do. Long railway journeys and crowded hotels are a heavy price to pay for that sight of out[-of-door] nature which we can get with more undisturbed benefit at home.
Yes! the state of affairs in France is a grief for all Europe, and many of us here are more deeply concerned about it than about the Eastern question. The arrest of trade, already in a depressed condition before the 16th May 783 is a deplorable, widely dispersed calamity. People here have greatly reduced their establishments and general expenditure, and here as with you artists find poor sale for their pictures.
We are settled in our London home for the winter and shall hardly be able to get into the country again before the end of May. That change is one which we both greatly enjoy. London, in spite of our utmost efforts to ward off visits and other engagements, is a place of continued unrest and interruption. Letters and other small claims eat away much time and leave no corresponding benefit.
You are quite right not to accede to the stupid suggestion of the publishers to reduce Romola. 784 You only have the means of judging whether "Brother Jacob" would find a welcome in any of your periodicals. I have no objection to your using it, now that you have taken the trouble to translate it, and am glad you so appreciate it. I have given the authorisation to translate "Daniel Deronda" to a Jewish writer, the brother-in-law of Calman Levy, and the translation is finished but has not yet appeared. 785
I have had so many letters at different times from French men and women asking leave to translate first one book and then another of mine! They seem ignorant that any of them has been translated. And I really am not anxious that those which are not yet put into French should ever receive that introduction. My French public must be small. It gratifies me that your Rabbi is gratified with my work, and I thank you for putting it within his reach.
Mr. Lewes is as usual very bright and happy, working industri[ous]ly at his favourite studies, though much checked by dyspeptic headache. He begs to be remembered in my messages and heartily reciprocates
yours and Madame D'Albert's friendly regards. With earnest wishes for her and your sustainment in strength and courage as the years become more and more taxing, I remain always, dear friend
Yours affectionately
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Copy by D'Albert-Durade in Tinker Collection, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory | 21 North Bank | Regent's Park | November 27. 77.
My dear Friend
I have just received and read aloud to my husband your kind letter and answer it at once that I may not again seem [un]mindful of my tenderly remembered and remembering friends.
Your account of Madame D'Albert comforts me. That she retains her soundness of mind and can enjoy this change of visiting you daily at your post 782 gives me a delighted sense that life is not a burthen to her. Assure her of my constant love and lively memory of her goodness. It seems rather astonishing that Mr. Alphonse has a grown up daughter! We realize our own age chiefly in the growth of the young ones who date from our latter time. Our now only son Charles, has a third little daughter who was christened Eleanor about three weeks ago. In these children and in all other conditions of our life we are thoroughly happy, and my health has of late been much improved. I hardly know whether I told you that we have bought a house in the loveliest part of Surrey for a summer residence, no longer liking so well to travel abroad as we used to do. Long railway journeys and crowded hotels are a heavy price to pay for that sight of out[-of-door] nature which we can get with more undisturbed benefit at home.
Yes! the state of affairs in France is a grief for all Europe, and many of us here are more deeply concerned about it than about the Eastern question. The arrest of trade, already in a depressed condition before the 16th May 783 is a deplorable, widely dispersed calamity. People here have greatly reduced their establishments and general expenditure, and here as with you artists find poor sale for their pictures.
We are settled in our London home for the winter and shall hardly be able to get into the country again before the end of May. That change is one which we both greatly enjoy. London, in spite of our utmost efforts to ward off visits and other engagements, is a place of continued unrest and interruption. Letters and other small claims eat away much time and leave no corresponding benefit.
You are quite right not to accede to the stupid suggestion of the publishers to reduce Romola. 784 You only have the means of judging whether "Brother Jacob" would find a welcome in any of your periodicals. I have no objection to your using it, now that you have taken the trouble to translate it, and am glad you so appreciate it. I have given the authorisation to translate "Daniel Deronda" to a Jewish writer, the brother-in-law of Calman Levy, and the translation is finished but has not yet appeared. 785
I have had so many letters at different times from French men and women asking leave to translate first one book and then another of mine! They seem ignorant that any of them has been translated. And I really am not anxious that those which are not yet put into French should ever receive that introduction. My French public must be small. It gratifies me that your Rabbi is gratified with my work, and I thank you for putting it within his reach.
Mr. Lewes is as usual very bright and happy, working industri[ous]ly at his favourite studies, though much checked by dyspeptic headache. He begs to be remembered in my messages and heartily reciprocates
yours and Madame D'Albert's friendly regards. With earnest wishes for her and your sustainment in strength and courage as the years become more and more taxing, I remain always, dear friend
Yours affectionately
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 November 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/92360