GE to Fanny [Mrs. Henry] Houghton, London, 6 April 1854
Title
GE to Fanny [Mrs. Henry] Houghton, London, 6 April 1854
Title
GE to Fanny [Mrs. Henry] Houghton, London, 6 April 1854
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Fanny [Mrs. Henry] Houghton
Date(s)
- 1854-04-06
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Fanny [Mrs. Henry] Houghton, London, 6 April 1854
Text: Cross, 1, 320-321.
Thank you for your very kind letter, which I received this morning. It is pleasant to think of you as quite well, and enjoying your sea breezes.
But do you imagine me sitting with my hands crossed, ready to start for any quarter of the world at the shortest notice? It is not on those terms that people, not rich, live in London. I shall be deep in proof-sheets till the end of May, and shall only dismiss them to make material for new ones. I daresay you will pity me. But as one of Balzac's characters says, after maturity, "La vie n'est que l'exercice d'une habitude dans un milieu pr'e9f'e9r'e9"; and I could no more live out of my milieu, than the haddocks I daresay you are often having for dinner.
My health is better. I had got into a labyrinth of headaches and palpitations, but I think I am out of it now, and I hope to keep well. I am not the less obliged to you, dear Fanny, for wishing to have me with you. But to leave London now would not be agreeable to me, even if it were morally possible. To see you again would certainly be a pleasure, but I hope that will come to pass without my crossing the Irish Channel.
Text: Cross, 1, 320-321.
Thank you for your very kind letter, which I received this morning. It is pleasant to think of you as quite well, and enjoying your sea breezes.
But do you imagine me sitting with my hands crossed, ready to start for any quarter of the world at the shortest notice? It is not on those terms that people, not rich, live in London. I shall be deep in proof-sheets till the end of May, and shall only dismiss them to make material for new ones. I daresay you will pity me. But as one of Balzac's characters says, after maturity, "La vie n'est que l'exercice d'une habitude dans un milieu pr'e9f'e9r'e9"; and I could no more live out of my milieu, than the haddocks I daresay you are often having for dinner.
My health is better. I had got into a labyrinth of headaches and palpitations, but I think I am out of it now, and I hope to keep well. I am not the less obliged to you, dear Fanny, for wishing to have me with you. But to leave London now would not be agreeable to me, even if it were morally possible. To see you again would certainly be a pleasure, but I hope that will come to pass without my crossing the Irish Channel.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Fanny [Mrs. Henry] Houghton, London, 6 April 1854, 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/93503