GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, [26 October 1849]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, [26 October 1849]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, [26 October 1849]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1849-10-26
Place
GENEVA
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, [26 October 1849]
MS: Yale. Address: Sara. Endorsed: 1849. Extracts published: Cross, I, 237-238.
Geneva Rue des Chanoines 107.
Liebe Gemahlinn
I trust you have thrown off the sackcloth with which you had clothed yourself when you last wrote to me. If it were not always presumptuous for us to pronounce for another in such matters I should say that you are excessive in your self-humiliation. I share your respect for Mr. Hennell's admirable judgment and feeling but from all that both you and Cara have told me for the last 2 or 3 years I am convinced that both have been intensified and narrowed in their action to a morbid degree, and that you are doing yourself wrong when you bow to his dicta as a vox Dei. 868 But no more about matters which I dare say have ceased to occupy you.
Cara has told you by this time how happily I am situated. I like my town life vastly and shall like it still better in the winter. There is an indescribable charm to me in this form of human nest-making. You enter a by no means attractive-looking house, you climb up two or three flights of cold dark-looking stone steps, you ring at a very modest door and you enter a set of rooms snug or comfortable or elegant. One is so out of reach of intruders, so undiverted from one's occupations by externals, so free from cold rushing winds through hall-doors, one feels in a downy nest high up in a good old tree. I have always had a hankering after this sort of life and I find it was a true instinct of what would suit me. Just opposite my windows is the street in which the Sisters of Charity live 869 and if I look out, I generally see either one of them or a sober-looking ecclesiastic. Then a walk of five minutes takes me out of all streets within sight of beauties that I am sure you too would love, if you did not share my enthusiasm for the town. I have to write to Rosehill again today about the newspapers so I have scribbled a little bit to you to make the postage pay for a little more, but I have not another minute having promised to go out before dinner, so dearest take my letter as a hasty kiss just to let you know how constantly I love you -- how the longer I live and the more I have felt the better I know how to value you. That is at least one redeeming point in your
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Address: Sara. Endorsed: 1849. Extracts published: Cross, I, 237-238.
Geneva Rue des Chanoines 107.
Liebe Gemahlinn
I trust you have thrown off the sackcloth with which you had clothed yourself when you last wrote to me. If it were not always presumptuous for us to pronounce for another in such matters I should say that you are excessive in your self-humiliation. I share your respect for Mr. Hennell's admirable judgment and feeling but from all that both you and Cara have told me for the last 2 or 3 years I am convinced that both have been intensified and narrowed in their action to a morbid degree, and that you are doing yourself wrong when you bow to his dicta as a vox Dei. 868 But no more about matters which I dare say have ceased to occupy you.
Cara has told you by this time how happily I am situated. I like my town life vastly and shall like it still better in the winter. There is an indescribable charm to me in this form of human nest-making. You enter a by no means attractive-looking house, you climb up two or three flights of cold dark-looking stone steps, you ring at a very modest door and you enter a set of rooms snug or comfortable or elegant. One is so out of reach of intruders, so undiverted from one's occupations by externals, so free from cold rushing winds through hall-doors, one feels in a downy nest high up in a good old tree. I have always had a hankering after this sort of life and I find it was a true instinct of what would suit me. Just opposite my windows is the street in which the Sisters of Charity live 869 and if I look out, I generally see either one of them or a sober-looking ecclesiastic. Then a walk of five minutes takes me out of all streets within sight of beauties that I am sure you too would love, if you did not share my enthusiasm for the town. I have to write to Rosehill again today about the newspapers so I have scribbled a little bit to you to make the postage pay for a little more, but I have not another minute having promised to go out before dinner, so dearest take my letter as a hasty kiss just to let you know how constantly I love you -- how the longer I live and the more I have felt the better I know how to value you. That is at least one redeeming point in your
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Geneva, [26 October 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/93925