GE to Oscar Browning, London, 26 July 1867
Title
GE to Oscar Browning, London, 26 July 1867
Title
GE to Oscar Browning, London, 26 July 1867
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Oscar Browning
Date(s)
- 1867-07-26
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Oscar Browning, London, 26 July 1867
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Mrs. Lewes. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
July 26. 67.
My dear Mr. Browning
The celestial chair is not yet come, but doubtless it will make its appearance today or tomorrow. 650 The seat will be all the pleasanter to me because it will often remind me of Eton, which for me is associated much less with abuses that move the indignation of I. O. than with agreeable friends whom I hope to know better. The opportunity you so kindly invite us to use tomorrow would certainly have tempted us if the nearness of our departure on a rather long journey did not cause us too many home engagements.
I wonder whether Mr. Lewes told you that we are going to Dresden -- slowly, by way of Ilmenau, which once fascinated us in old days, with its pine covered solitudes and Sacro luogo of the Gickelhahn 651 where Goethe wrote his exquisite tiny poem. Are you, by any chance, going to take your holiday in N. Germany, so that your face, suddenly encountered at some dull angle of a street or station, might make the spot pleasantly memorable to us?
I wish you had been with us last evening. Mr. and Mrs. T. Trollope were with us, and the exquisite little creature Bice whom you perhaps remember to have heard singing wonderfully at Florence. One is vexed to think that Mr. Trollope's History 652 answers worse commercially than his novels. Alas, for the conditions that determine this undesirable "natural selection"! I wish we could get up a Co-operative Association against trashy literature, a Letters-Union, with a little wakening of ill-used pens. It is sad when a man is discouraged from bringing to bear his real learning and real love, and finds success in doing something less than his best.
Pray offer my kind regards to Mrs. Browning and your sisters, and believe me
Always yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Mrs. Lewes. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
July 26. 67.
My dear Mr. Browning
The celestial chair is not yet come, but doubtless it will make its appearance today or tomorrow. 650 The seat will be all the pleasanter to me because it will often remind me of Eton, which for me is associated much less with abuses that move the indignation of I. O. than with agreeable friends whom I hope to know better. The opportunity you so kindly invite us to use tomorrow would certainly have tempted us if the nearness of our departure on a rather long journey did not cause us too many home engagements.
I wonder whether Mr. Lewes told you that we are going to Dresden -- slowly, by way of Ilmenau, which once fascinated us in old days, with its pine covered solitudes and Sacro luogo of the Gickelhahn 651 where Goethe wrote his exquisite tiny poem. Are you, by any chance, going to take your holiday in N. Germany, so that your face, suddenly encountered at some dull angle of a street or station, might make the spot pleasantly memorable to us?
I wish you had been with us last evening. Mr. and Mrs. T. Trollope were with us, and the exquisite little creature Bice whom you perhaps remember to have heard singing wonderfully at Florence. One is vexed to think that Mr. Trollope's History 652 answers worse commercially than his novels. Alas, for the conditions that determine this undesirable "natural selection"! I wish we could get up a Co-operative Association against trashy literature, a Letters-Union, with a little wakening of ill-used pens. It is sad when a man is discouraged from bringing to bear his real learning and real love, and finds success in doing something less than his best.
Pray offer my kind regards to Mrs. Browning and your sisters, and believe me
Always yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Oscar Browning, London, 26 July 1867, 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/93763