GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 9 March 1879
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 9 March 1879
Title
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 9 March 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Francois D'Albert-Durade
Date(s)
- 1879-03-09
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 9 March 1879
Text: Copy by D'Albert-Durade in Tinker Collection, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory | 21 North Bank | March 9. 79.
Dear Friend
I must beg you to excuse me for answering your kind letter very briefly. I am much obliged to my friends for writing to me, and I like to know of their welfare, but to answer their letters is a great burthen to me, my time and strength being just now much taxed.
How wonderfully Madame D'Albert endures the weight of years! Pray assure her of my reverential remembrance and affection.
I have no objection to your publishing the translation of "Amos Barton," by which you probably mean the three stories comprised under the title of "Scenes of Clerical Life," since you find a publisher willing to undertake the issue. 195
The translation of "Romola" 196 I have not looked into, finding no interest in my own work at present. The last bit of writing that my husband did at his desk was in sending a manuscript of a small work by me to the Messrs. Blackwood. This was on the morning of the 21st of November, the day on which he took the cold that was the proximate cause of the fatal illness. But of course I have not allowed the work to be published. You must pardon me, therefore, for neglecting your present of the French Romola. My appetite for life is gone.
Our son Charles gave you a very erroneous idea if he said that I was engaged in "finishing" a work of my husband. I am simply revising and putting in order for the press such portions of his manuscript as are at all in a state for publication. But this sacred task is necessarily accompanied with much anxiety, and my health has been a great hindrance to progress.
I am sorry that your Charles is less thoroughly prosperous as to income than I had imagined. But all through Europe there are sufferers from the long-standing commercial depression.
Your health I trust will bear up under your domestic cares. Believe me always, though silent, not forgetful of your friendship. I shall feel your kindness all the more if you will indulge me by not asking letters. You will perhaps be inclined to rebuke this apparent want of sympathy in me, but if you knew how many notes and letters I have to write, you might withdraw your condemnation. Formerly, there was one who saved me from correspondence by writing in my stead whenever it was possible. But now I am alone.
Yours with faithful regard
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Copy by D'Albert-Durade in Tinker Collection, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory | 21 North Bank | March 9. 79.
Dear Friend
I must beg you to excuse me for answering your kind letter very briefly. I am much obliged to my friends for writing to me, and I like to know of their welfare, but to answer their letters is a great burthen to me, my time and strength being just now much taxed.
How wonderfully Madame D'Albert endures the weight of years! Pray assure her of my reverential remembrance and affection.
I have no objection to your publishing the translation of "Amos Barton," by which you probably mean the three stories comprised under the title of "Scenes of Clerical Life," since you find a publisher willing to undertake the issue. 195
The translation of "Romola" 196 I have not looked into, finding no interest in my own work at present. The last bit of writing that my husband did at his desk was in sending a manuscript of a small work by me to the Messrs. Blackwood. This was on the morning of the 21st of November, the day on which he took the cold that was the proximate cause of the fatal illness. But of course I have not allowed the work to be published. You must pardon me, therefore, for neglecting your present of the French Romola. My appetite for life is gone.
Our son Charles gave you a very erroneous idea if he said that I was engaged in "finishing" a work of my husband. I am simply revising and putting in order for the press such portions of his manuscript as are at all in a state for publication. But this sacred task is necessarily accompanied with much anxiety, and my health has been a great hindrance to progress.
I am sorry that your Charles is less thoroughly prosperous as to income than I had imagined. But all through Europe there are sufferers from the long-standing commercial depression.
Your health I trust will bear up under your domestic cares. Believe me always, though silent, not forgetful of your friendship. I shall feel your kindness all the more if you will indulge me by not asking letters. You will perhaps be inclined to rebuke this apparent want of sympathy in me, but if you knew how many notes and letters I have to write, you might withdraw your condemnation. Formerly, there was one who saved me from correspondence by writing in my stead whenever it was possible. But now I am alone.
Yours with faithful regard
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 9 March 1879, 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/92372