GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, London, 19 December 1879
Title
GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, London, 19 December 1879
Title
GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, London, 19 December 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope
Date(s)
- 1879-12-19
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, London, 19 December 1879
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Envelope: Mrs. Trollope | 607 Via Nazionale | Palazzo della Congregazione | Rome. Postmark: LON[DON-]N.W. 8 | C 3 | DE 20 | 79. Endorsed: Mrs. Lewes 1879; answered. Published: T. A. Trollope, What I Remember, 2 vols., 1887, II, 323-324.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 19. 79.
Dear Mrs. Trollope
In sending me Dr. Haller's words you have sent me a great comfort. 350 A just appreciation of my Husband's work from a competent person is what I am most athirst for, and Dr. Haller has put his finger on a true characteristic. I only wish he could print something to the same effect in any pages that would be generally read.
There is no Biography. An article entitled [George Henry Lewes] appeared in the last [New London Quarterly.] It was written by a man for whom we had much esteem, but it is not strong. A few facts about the early life and education are given with tolerable accuracy, but the estimate of the philosophic and scientific activity is inadequate. Still, it is the best thing you could mention to Dr. Haller. You know, perhaps, that a volume entitled [The Study of Psychology,] printed from my Husband's M.S.S. appeared in May last and that another volume (500 pp.) of [Problems of Life and Mind] has just been published. The best history of a writer is contained in his writings -- these are his chief actions. If he happens to have left an autobiography telling (what nobody else can tell) how his mind grew, how it was determined by the joys, sorrows and other influences of childhood and youth -- that is a precious contribution to knowledge. But Biographies generally are a disease of English literature.
I have never yet told you how grateful I was to you for writing to me a year ago. For a long while I could read no letter. But now I have read yours more than once and it is carefully preserved. You had been with us in our happiness so near the time when it left me -- you and your Husband are peculiarly bound up with the latest memories.
You must have had a mournful summer, but Mr. Trollope's thorough recovery from his severe attack is a fresh proof of his constitutional strength. We cannot properly count age by years. See what Mr. Gladstone does with seventy of them in his frame. And my lost one had but sixty one and a half.
You are to come to England again in 1881, I remember. And then, if I am alive, I hope to see you. With best love to you both,
Always dear Mrs. Trollope,
Yours faithfully
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Envelope: Mrs. Trollope | 607 Via Nazionale | Palazzo della Congregazione | Rome. Postmark: LON[DON-]N.W. 8 | C 3 | DE 20 | 79. Endorsed: Mrs. Lewes 1879; answered. Published: T. A. Trollope, What I Remember, 2 vols., 1887, II, 323-324.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 19. 79.
Dear Mrs. Trollope
In sending me Dr. Haller's words you have sent me a great comfort. 350 A just appreciation of my Husband's work from a competent person is what I am most athirst for, and Dr. Haller has put his finger on a true characteristic. I only wish he could print something to the same effect in any pages that would be generally read.
There is no Biography. An article entitled [George Henry Lewes] appeared in the last [New London Quarterly.] It was written by a man for whom we had much esteem, but it is not strong. A few facts about the early life and education are given with tolerable accuracy, but the estimate of the philosophic and scientific activity is inadequate. Still, it is the best thing you could mention to Dr. Haller. You know, perhaps, that a volume entitled [The Study of Psychology,] printed from my Husband's M.S.S. appeared in May last and that another volume (500 pp.) of [Problems of Life and Mind] has just been published. The best history of a writer is contained in his writings -- these are his chief actions. If he happens to have left an autobiography telling (what nobody else can tell) how his mind grew, how it was determined by the joys, sorrows and other influences of childhood and youth -- that is a precious contribution to knowledge. But Biographies generally are a disease of English literature.
I have never yet told you how grateful I was to you for writing to me a year ago. For a long while I could read no letter. But now I have read yours more than once and it is carefully preserved. You had been with us in our happiness so near the time when it left me -- you and your Husband are peculiarly bound up with the latest memories.
You must have had a mournful summer, but Mr. Trollope's thorough recovery from his severe attack is a fresh proof of his constitutional strength. We cannot properly count age by years. See what Mr. Gladstone does with seventy of them in his frame. And my lost one had but sixty one and a half.
You are to come to England again in 1881, I remember. And then, if I am alive, I hope to see you. With best love to you both,
Always dear Mrs. Trollope,
Yours faithfully
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Thomas Adolphus Trollope, London, 19 December 1879, 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/93700