GE to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [27 June 1859]
Title
GE to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [27 June 1859]
Title
GE to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [27 June 1859]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1859-06-27
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [27 June 1859]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: July 1859. Mostly published: Cross, II, 116-117.
Holly Lodge | Monday Evening.
Dear Friends -- all three of you --
Thanks for your packet of heart-felt kindness. That is the best of your kindness -- there is no sham in it.
It was inevitable to me to have that outburst when I saw you for a little while after the long silence, and felt that I must tell you then or be forestalled, and leave you to gather the truth amidst an inextricable mixture of falsehood. But I feel that the influence of talking about my books even to you and Mrs. Bodichon has been so bad to me that I should like to be able to keep silence concerning them for evermore. If people were to buzz round me with their remarks, or compliments, I should lose the repose of mind and truthfulness of production without which no good healthy books can be written. Talking about my books, I find, has much the same malign effect on me as talking of my feelings or my religion.
I should think Sara's version of my brother's words concerning Adam Bede is the correct one -- "that there are things in it about my father" i.e. being interpreted, things my father told us about his early life, not a "portrait" of my father. There is not a single portrait in the book, nor will there be in any future book of mine. There are two portraits in the Clerical Scenes; but that was my first bit of art, and my hand was not well in -- I did not know so well how to manipulate my materials.
As for the incognito -- things must take their course. We can't help people saying now that the books are mine, but the one point to secure is that we and our friends make no categorical statement, which can be taken as absolute authority. As soon as the Liggins falsehood is annihilated of course there will be twenty new ones in its place; and one of the first will be that I was not the sole author. The only safe thing for my mind's health is to shut my ears and go on with my work.
So much, and no more. Think of me always as a sharer in your evil and your good.
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: July 1859. Mostly published: Cross, II, 116-117.
Holly Lodge | Monday Evening.
Dear Friends -- all three of you --
Thanks for your packet of heart-felt kindness. That is the best of your kindness -- there is no sham in it.
It was inevitable to me to have that outburst when I saw you for a little while after the long silence, and felt that I must tell you then or be forestalled, and leave you to gather the truth amidst an inextricable mixture of falsehood. But I feel that the influence of talking about my books even to you and Mrs. Bodichon has been so bad to me that I should like to be able to keep silence concerning them for evermore. If people were to buzz round me with their remarks, or compliments, I should lose the repose of mind and truthfulness of production without which no good healthy books can be written. Talking about my books, I find, has much the same malign effect on me as talking of my feelings or my religion.
I should think Sara's version of my brother's words concerning Adam Bede is the correct one -- "that there are things in it about my father" i.e. being interpreted, things my father told us about his early life, not a "portrait" of my father. There is not a single portrait in the book, nor will there be in any future book of mine. There are two portraits in the Clerical Scenes; but that was my first bit of art, and my hand was not well in -- I did not know so well how to manipulate my materials.
As for the incognito -- things must take their course. We can't help people saying now that the books are mine, but the one point to secure is that we and our friends make no categorical statement, which can be taken as absolute authority. As soon as the Liggins falsehood is annihilated of course there will be twenty new ones in its place; and one of the first will be that I was not the sole author. The only safe thing for my mind's health is to shut my ears and go on with my work.
So much, and no more. Think of me always as a sharer in your evil and your good.
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray and Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, [27 June 1859], 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/93136