GE to Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 25 March 1864
Title
GE to Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 25 March 1864
Title
GE to Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 25 March 1864
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor
Date(s)
- 1864-03-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 25 March 1864
Text: Cross, II, 380-381.
Fog, 242 east wind, and headache: there is my week's history. But this morning, when your letter came to me, I had got up well, and was reading the sorrows of the aged Hecuba with great enjoyment. I wish an immortal drama could be got out of my sorrows, that people might be the better for them two thousand years hence. But fog, east wind, and headache are not great dramatic motives.
Your letter was a reinforcement of the delicious sense of bien 'eatre that comes with the departure of bodily pain; and I am glad, retrospectively, that beyond our fog lay your moonlight and your view of the glorious sea. It is not difficult to me to believe that you look a new creature already. Mr Lewes tells me the country air has always a magical effect on me, even in the first hour; but it is not the air alone, is it? It is the wide sky and the hills and the wild flowers which are linked with all calming thoughts, just as every object in town has its perturbing associations.
I share your joy in the Federal successes 243 -- with that check that attends all joy in a war not absolutely ended. But you have worked and earned more joy than those who have been merely passives.
Text: Cross, II, 380-381.
Fog, 242 east wind, and headache: there is my week's history. But this morning, when your letter came to me, I had got up well, and was reading the sorrows of the aged Hecuba with great enjoyment. I wish an immortal drama could be got out of my sorrows, that people might be the better for them two thousand years hence. But fog, east wind, and headache are not great dramatic motives.
Your letter was a reinforcement of the delicious sense of bien 'eatre that comes with the departure of bodily pain; and I am glad, retrospectively, that beyond our fog lay your moonlight and your view of the glorious sea. It is not difficult to me to believe that you look a new creature already. Mr Lewes tells me the country air has always a magical effect on me, even in the first hour; but it is not the air alone, is it? It is the wide sky and the hills and the wild flowers which are linked with all calming thoughts, just as every object in town has its perturbing associations.
I share your joy in the Federal successes 243 -- with that check that attends all joy in a war not absolutely ended. But you have worked and earned more joy than those who have been merely passives.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 25 March 1864, 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/93184