GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 January 1872
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 January 1872
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 January 1872
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve
Date(s)
- 1872-01-22
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 January 1872
Text: Cross, III, 149-150.
Your letter seems to pierce the rainy fog with a little sunlight. Cold and clearness are the reverse of what we are usually having here. Until the last few days, my chief consciousness has been that of struggling against inward as well as outward fog; but I am now better, and have only been dragged back into headachiness by a little too much fatigue from visitors. 447 I give you this account as a preface to my renunciation of a journey to Dover, which would be very delightful, if I had not already lost too much time to be warranted in taking a holiday.
Next Saturday we are going to have a party -- six to dine, and a small rush of people after dinner, for the sake of music. 448 I think it is four years at least since we undertook anything of that kind.
A great domestic event for us has been the arrival of a new dog, who has all Ben's virtues, with more intelligence, and a begging attitude of irresistible charm. He is a dark-brown spaniel. 449 You see what infantine innocence we live in!
Glad you are reading my demigod Milton! We also are rather old-fashioned in our light reading just now; for I have rejected Heyse's German stories, brand new, in favour of dear old Johnson's [Lives of the Poets,] which I read aloud in my old age with a delicious revival of girlish impressions. 450
Text: Cross, III, 149-150.
Your letter seems to pierce the rainy fog with a little sunlight. Cold and clearness are the reverse of what we are usually having here. Until the last few days, my chief consciousness has been that of struggling against inward as well as outward fog; but I am now better, and have only been dragged back into headachiness by a little too much fatigue from visitors. 447 I give you this account as a preface to my renunciation of a journey to Dover, which would be very delightful, if I had not already lost too much time to be warranted in taking a holiday.
Next Saturday we are going to have a party -- six to dine, and a small rush of people after dinner, for the sake of music. 448 I think it is four years at least since we undertook anything of that kind.
A great domestic event for us has been the arrival of a new dog, who has all Ben's virtues, with more intelligence, and a begging attitude of irresistible charm. He is a dark-brown spaniel. 449 You see what infantine innocence we live in!
Glad you are reading my demigod Milton! We also are rather old-fashioned in our light reading just now; for I have rejected Heyse's German stories, brand new, in favour of dear old Johnson's [Lives of the Poets,] which I read aloud in my old age with a delicious revival of girlish impressions. 450
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, London, 22 January 1872, 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/93638