GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Paris, 4 May 1869
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Paris, 4 May 1869
Title
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Paris, 4 May 1869
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve
Date(s)
- 1869-05-04
Place
Paris
Letter Content
GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Paris, 4 May 1869
Text: Cross, III, 79-81.
I found your letter at Florence on our arrival there (on the 23d); but until now, bodily ease and leisure enough to write to you have never happened to me in the same moments. Our long journey since we left home on the 3d March, seen from a point of view which, happily, no one shares with me, has been a history of ailments. In shunning the English March, we found one quite as disagreeable, without the mitigation of home comforts; and though we went even as far as Naples in search of warmth, we never found it until we settled in Rome, at the beginning of April. Here we had many days of unbroken sunshine, and enjoyed what we were never able to enjoy during our month's stay in 1860 -- the many glorious views of the city and the mountains. The chief novelty to us in our long route has been the sight of Assisi and
Ravenna: 50 the rest has been a revisiting of scenes already in our memories; and to most of them we have probably said our last goodbye. Enough of us and our travels. The only remarkable thing people can tell of their doings in these days is, that they have stayed at home.
The [Fortnightly] lay uncut at Mr Trollope's, and Mr Lewes had nothing more pressing to do than to cut it open at the reply to Professor Huxley. 51 He presently came to me, and said it was excellent. It delighted him the more because he had just before, at Rome, alighted on the [Pall Mall] account of the article, which falsely represented it as entirely apologetic. At the first spare moment I plunged into an easy-chair, and read, with thorough satisfaction in the admirable temper and the force of the reply. We intend to start for Calais this evening; and as the rain prevents us from doing anything agreeable out of doors, I have nothing to hinder me from sitting, with my knees up to my chin, and scribbling, now that I am become a little sounder in head and in body generally than beautiful Italy allowed me to be. As beautiful as ever -- more beautiful -- it has looked to me on this last visit; and it is the fault of my physique if it did not agree with me. Pray offer my warmest sympathy to Dr Congreve in the anxieties of his difficult task. What hard work it seems to go on living sometimes! Blessed are the dead.
Text: Cross, III, 79-81.
I found your letter at Florence on our arrival there (on the 23d); but until now, bodily ease and leisure enough to write to you have never happened to me in the same moments. Our long journey since we left home on the 3d March, seen from a point of view which, happily, no one shares with me, has been a history of ailments. In shunning the English March, we found one quite as disagreeable, without the mitigation of home comforts; and though we went even as far as Naples in search of warmth, we never found it until we settled in Rome, at the beginning of April. Here we had many days of unbroken sunshine, and enjoyed what we were never able to enjoy during our month's stay in 1860 -- the many glorious views of the city and the mountains. The chief novelty to us in our long route has been the sight of Assisi and
Ravenna: 50 the rest has been a revisiting of scenes already in our memories; and to most of them we have probably said our last goodbye. Enough of us and our travels. The only remarkable thing people can tell of their doings in these days is, that they have stayed at home.
The [Fortnightly] lay uncut at Mr Trollope's, and Mr Lewes had nothing more pressing to do than to cut it open at the reply to Professor Huxley. 51 He presently came to me, and said it was excellent. It delighted him the more because he had just before, at Rome, alighted on the [Pall Mall] account of the article, which falsely represented it as entirely apologetic. At the first spare moment I plunged into an easy-chair, and read, with thorough satisfaction in the admirable temper and the force of the reply. We intend to start for Calais this evening; and as the rain prevents us from doing anything agreeable out of doors, I have nothing to hinder me from sitting, with my knees up to my chin, and scribbling, now that I am become a little sounder in head and in body generally than beautiful Italy allowed me to be. As beautiful as ever -- more beautiful -- it has looked to me on this last visit; and it is the fault of my physique if it did not agree with me. Pray offer my warmest sympathy to Dr Congreve in the anxieties of his difficult task. What hard work it seems to go on living sometimes! Blessed are the dead.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria [Mrs. Richard] Congreve, Paris, 4 May 1869, 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/93666