GE to Frau Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, London, 26 August 1861
Title
GE to Frau Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, London, 26 August 1861
Title
GE to Frau Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, London, 26 August 1861
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Frau Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold
Date(s)
- 1861-08-26
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Frau Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, London, 26 August 1861
MS: Yale. Endorsed: (George Elliot) Author of The mille on the flooth -- Adam Beed, etc. G. Elliot (Frau Lewes). Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Square | London | August 26. 1861.
Dear Madame
I received this morning the little packet you sent by Mr. Ranke, and I am so pleased -- so grateful that you have thought of giving me this proof of your remembrance that I cannot satisfy my feeling without writing at once to thank you. The portrait, 836 which we shall prize very much, seems to us as good as a small photograph can be: the expression of the eyes is lost, but all the rest of the face is admirably characteristic. You know, I used to like particularly the slightly Demonic angle of the eyebrows. Women are seldom represented at all fairly by photographs; else I should have wished to have yours also. But I remember you very vividly, and if I were a painter I could make a sketch of you still, either under the bowering trees of your garden, or on your drawing room sofa with the vase of flowers before you.
I imagine your life is very nearly the same as when we had a glimpse of it; but ours has changed a good deal. We have no longer our complete solitude 'e0 deux, for two of our three boys (the cr'e9tins, you remember?) are now tall fellows, and the eldest has been at home with us for a year. He is between 18 and 19, and has a place in the General Post Office, which is an advantageous opening of a career for him. For his sake -- that is, to make a home for him -- we are living in London; a change which is a great sacrifice to me, who care more about the country than about all other outside enjoyments. But he is a dear, precious boy, worth a great deal of sacrifice for the sake of preserving the purity and beauty of his mind. He is very tender to us old people and pets us very much. The second boy is studying at Edinburgh, and we think of his passing the next year's examination for the Civil Service in India. He is of an active adventurous temperament, fond of Natural History, and of roving about in search of "specimens," so that a life of London work would not suit him at all. The third boy is still at Hofwyl.
You see, we have had a great many serious matters to think of since you saw us, and I dare say we should both look graver and older to you. But such a change is due rather to imperfect health than to cares, for we have been greatly blessed by prosperity in all other things. My dear husband's health troubles me more than usual just now: for years he has been delicate, but I think I have never seen him so weak and so frequently reduced to inactivity by headache and other ailments as he is now. We were in Italy in the spring, but instead of being benefitted by the change, he came back much shaken. I live in alternate hope and fear, for his bright, cheerful disposition makes his face often contradict in a few hours all the sad auguries of irrecoverably enfeebled health that I have been drawing from it. How I wish he had your husband within reach to cheer him with delightful talk about salamanders 837 and all the other charming creatures lately introduced into society! You who have only known that mixture of town and country which belongs even to a capital in Germany, can imagine nothing so ugly and oppressive as London. We are near Regent's Park and the Zoological Gardens, and in these we take our daily walk; but the sky above us is not the blue sky of Munich, and we can only vary our walk by going into streets and squares. I am in a grumbling mood, you see; but you must set all this down as so much wickedness. I wish there were many women who have so much good in life as I have. You know, as well as any one, how slight everything else is compared with a life of perfect love and a union that every year makes closer.
I have often thought of the Bodenstedts since you sent me that sad picture of them, and have wished I could know more about that sweet little suffering woman, who seemed to bear up under the difficulties of life with noble unostentatious spirit. I should be very glad, and so would Mr. Lewes, if you would give our kind remembrances to them, whenever it occurs to you to speak of us to them. They were among our kindest friends at Munich, and I regretted that the distance of our residence from town, at the time Prof. Bodenstedt was in London, prevented us from seeing him frequently. 838
Goodby, dear Madame. Thank you warmly for sending me a few kind words: they will make the thought of you brighter to me. We both echo your wish that we could meet again, and both unite in the highest, kindest regards to the Professor. You have always a chief place in my husband's gallery of charming women.
Ever yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: (George Elliot) Author of The mille on the flooth -- Adam Beed, etc. G. Elliot (Frau Lewes). Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Square | London | August 26. 1861.
Dear Madame
I received this morning the little packet you sent by Mr. Ranke, and I am so pleased -- so grateful that you have thought of giving me this proof of your remembrance that I cannot satisfy my feeling without writing at once to thank you. The portrait, 836 which we shall prize very much, seems to us as good as a small photograph can be: the expression of the eyes is lost, but all the rest of the face is admirably characteristic. You know, I used to like particularly the slightly Demonic angle of the eyebrows. Women are seldom represented at all fairly by photographs; else I should have wished to have yours also. But I remember you very vividly, and if I were a painter I could make a sketch of you still, either under the bowering trees of your garden, or on your drawing room sofa with the vase of flowers before you.
I imagine your life is very nearly the same as when we had a glimpse of it; but ours has changed a good deal. We have no longer our complete solitude 'e0 deux, for two of our three boys (the cr'e9tins, you remember?) are now tall fellows, and the eldest has been at home with us for a year. He is between 18 and 19, and has a place in the General Post Office, which is an advantageous opening of a career for him. For his sake -- that is, to make a home for him -- we are living in London; a change which is a great sacrifice to me, who care more about the country than about all other outside enjoyments. But he is a dear, precious boy, worth a great deal of sacrifice for the sake of preserving the purity and beauty of his mind. He is very tender to us old people and pets us very much. The second boy is studying at Edinburgh, and we think of his passing the next year's examination for the Civil Service in India. He is of an active adventurous temperament, fond of Natural History, and of roving about in search of "specimens," so that a life of London work would not suit him at all. The third boy is still at Hofwyl.
You see, we have had a great many serious matters to think of since you saw us, and I dare say we should both look graver and older to you. But such a change is due rather to imperfect health than to cares, for we have been greatly blessed by prosperity in all other things. My dear husband's health troubles me more than usual just now: for years he has been delicate, but I think I have never seen him so weak and so frequently reduced to inactivity by headache and other ailments as he is now. We were in Italy in the spring, but instead of being benefitted by the change, he came back much shaken. I live in alternate hope and fear, for his bright, cheerful disposition makes his face often contradict in a few hours all the sad auguries of irrecoverably enfeebled health that I have been drawing from it. How I wish he had your husband within reach to cheer him with delightful talk about salamanders 837 and all the other charming creatures lately introduced into society! You who have only known that mixture of town and country which belongs even to a capital in Germany, can imagine nothing so ugly and oppressive as London. We are near Regent's Park and the Zoological Gardens, and in these we take our daily walk; but the sky above us is not the blue sky of Munich, and we can only vary our walk by going into streets and squares. I am in a grumbling mood, you see; but you must set all this down as so much wickedness. I wish there were many women who have so much good in life as I have. You know, as well as any one, how slight everything else is compared with a life of perfect love and a union that every year makes closer.
I have often thought of the Bodenstedts since you sent me that sad picture of them, and have wished I could know more about that sweet little suffering woman, who seemed to bear up under the difficulties of life with noble unostentatious spirit. I should be very glad, and so would Mr. Lewes, if you would give our kind remembrances to them, whenever it occurs to you to speak of us to them. They were among our kindest friends at Munich, and I regretted that the distance of our residence from town, at the time Prof. Bodenstedt was in London, prevented us from seeing him frequently. 838
Goodby, dear Madame. Thank you warmly for sending me a few kind words: they will make the thought of you brighter to me. We both echo your wish that we could meet again, and both unite in the highest, kindest regards to the Professor. You have always a chief place in my husband's gallery of charming women.
Ever yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Frau Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, London, 26 August 1861, 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/92382