GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Geneva, 4 December 1849]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Geneva, 4 December 1849]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Geneva, 4 December 1849]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1849-12-04
Place
[GENEVA]
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Geneva, 4 December 1849]
MS: Yale. Excerpts published: Cross, I, 240-241.
[On the same sheet with the preceding letter.]
Dear Sara
It is three weeks since you wrote the letter which I have received only this morning -- the pleasant visit to Chetham [?] is past and you are by this time at Rosehill, 872 which after all is only an exchange of pleasures. How do you look? I hope that bandeau of silvery locks is not widening too fast on the head I love so well -- that the eyes are as bright as ever. Your letter tells me they will beam as kindly as ever when I see them once more. Never make apologies about your letters or your words or anything else. It is your soul to which I am wedded, and do I not know too well how the poor soul is doubly belied, first by the impossibility of being in word and act as great, as loving, as good as it wills to be -- and again by the miserable weaknesses of the friends who see the words and acts through all sorts of mists raised by their own passions and preoccupations. In all these matters I am the chief of sinners, and I am tempted to rejoice in the offences of my friends because they make me feel less humiliation.
Mrs. Follen is the authoress of that pretty story [The Log Cabin,] 873 is she not? I am quite satisfied to be at Geneva instead of Paris -- in fact I am becoming passionately attached to the mountains, the lake, the streets, my own room and above all the dear people with whom I live. I have scribbled so fast and so horribly you will hardly be able to read what I have written but your imagination is sure to substitute something better than the reality.
Thy faithful spouse
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Excerpts published: Cross, I, 240-241.
[On the same sheet with the preceding letter.]
Dear Sara
It is three weeks since you wrote the letter which I have received only this morning -- the pleasant visit to Chetham [?] is past and you are by this time at Rosehill, 872 which after all is only an exchange of pleasures. How do you look? I hope that bandeau of silvery locks is not widening too fast on the head I love so well -- that the eyes are as bright as ever. Your letter tells me they will beam as kindly as ever when I see them once more. Never make apologies about your letters or your words or anything else. It is your soul to which I am wedded, and do I not know too well how the poor soul is doubly belied, first by the impossibility of being in word and act as great, as loving, as good as it wills to be -- and again by the miserable weaknesses of the friends who see the words and acts through all sorts of mists raised by their own passions and preoccupations. In all these matters I am the chief of sinners, and I am tempted to rejoice in the offences of my friends because they make me feel less humiliation.
Mrs. Follen is the authoress of that pretty story [The Log Cabin,] 873 is she not? I am quite satisfied to be at Geneva instead of Paris -- in fact I am becoming passionately attached to the mountains, the lake, the streets, my own room and above all the dear people with whom I live. I have scribbled so fast and so horribly you will hardly be able to read what I have written but your imagination is sure to substitute something better than the reality.
Thy faithful spouse
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Geneva, 4 December 1849], 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/93849