GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 September 1873
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 September 1873
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 September 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1873-09-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 September 1873
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1873. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 2. 73.
My dear Cara
I am very glad to hear that the story 835 is finished. Will you send me the manuscript and let me read it? Then, if it is old enough for boys of ten or eleven, I will offer it to Mr. Macmillan. It would be an advantage to have it appear in the lists of so important a publisher, who has issued some of the most successful books for children.
We returned from the Continent only ten days ago. On Friday we go to the house we have taken in the country, on experiment only, to see if it will suit us as a permanent home. We shall break up nothing here, as we take the other house furnished and shall give it up without trouble if we find it undesirable to move thither finally. The address is Blackbrook, Bickley, Kent. So will you next week send the manuscript to me there?
Mr. Lewes did not flourish very well during our journey. He was troubled with an attack of deafness (which happily has proved to be due to a temporary cause) and he had continual colds, finishing with a cough which still lingers but is now less troublesome. We wandered quite away from our plan, and did not go to any place, except Fontainebleau, which we had set down in our programme. The reason was, that I felt too weak to venture on the amount of journeying by railway which our project of going to Geneva demanded, and we feared that the heat of July and August would be trying in that region. Moreover, I was running away from the fatigue of seeing too many acquaintances, and shrank from the excitement that Geneva would be sure to bring. So we went to the Vosges, the lovely scene of Erckmann-Chatrian's books; and travelled by easy stages. Monsieur d'Albert is living and still active. He is seven or eight years younger than Madame d'Albert, who is now dying gently of her more than seventy years. Their two handsome sons, who were little boys when I shared their home, are now married and eminently prosperous at Marseilles, and "Maman" has seen her two groups of grandchildren.
You say nothing of Sara or of Mr. Bray. I hope the silence means that the summer-time has been favourable to them. It is you only who are exempt from all the infirmities of age. You will live to bury us all -- I am thinking of the answer given by our friend's Irish servant when his master proposed to pension him off: "Nay, Sir, I'll stay to bury you." With best love to all
Your affectionate
Marian.
Mr. Chapman (Chapman and Hall) has not made any further communication about "The British Empire," since Mr. Lewes gave him the revised account of the Numbers sold. Whence it must be concluded that he has given up the notion of reprinting it.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1873. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
September 2. 73.
My dear Cara
I am very glad to hear that the story 835 is finished. Will you send me the manuscript and let me read it? Then, if it is old enough for boys of ten or eleven, I will offer it to Mr. Macmillan. It would be an advantage to have it appear in the lists of so important a publisher, who has issued some of the most successful books for children.
We returned from the Continent only ten days ago. On Friday we go to the house we have taken in the country, on experiment only, to see if it will suit us as a permanent home. We shall break up nothing here, as we take the other house furnished and shall give it up without trouble if we find it undesirable to move thither finally. The address is Blackbrook, Bickley, Kent. So will you next week send the manuscript to me there?
Mr. Lewes did not flourish very well during our journey. He was troubled with an attack of deafness (which happily has proved to be due to a temporary cause) and he had continual colds, finishing with a cough which still lingers but is now less troublesome. We wandered quite away from our plan, and did not go to any place, except Fontainebleau, which we had set down in our programme. The reason was, that I felt too weak to venture on the amount of journeying by railway which our project of going to Geneva demanded, and we feared that the heat of July and August would be trying in that region. Moreover, I was running away from the fatigue of seeing too many acquaintances, and shrank from the excitement that Geneva would be sure to bring. So we went to the Vosges, the lovely scene of Erckmann-Chatrian's books; and travelled by easy stages. Monsieur d'Albert is living and still active. He is seven or eight years younger than Madame d'Albert, who is now dying gently of her more than seventy years. Their two handsome sons, who were little boys when I shared their home, are now married and eminently prosperous at Marseilles, and "Maman" has seen her two groups of grandchildren.
You say nothing of Sara or of Mr. Bray. I hope the silence means that the summer-time has been favourable to them. It is you only who are exempt from all the infirmities of age. You will live to bury us all -- I am thinking of the answer given by our friend's Irish servant when his master proposed to pension him off: "Nay, Sir, I'll stay to bury you." With best love to all
Your affectionate
Marian.
Mr. Chapman (Chapman and Hall) has not made any further communication about "The British Empire," since Mr. Lewes gave him the revised account of the Numbers sold. Whence it must be concluded that he has given up the notion of reprinting it.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 September 1873, 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/93280