GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 23 November [1877]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 23 November [1877]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 23 November [1877]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1877-11-23
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 23 November [1877]
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
November 23.
My dear Sara
I enjoyed your letter greatly. Thank you for the exertion you undertook for my sake. I thoroughly appreciate the effort it requires to give oneself forth in a letter, and I hardly know how I should get through my life with decent regard to gratuitous correspondents' feelings if Mr. Lewes did not come to my rescue and do most of my [answering] for me.
But I want to tell you that you must not interpret H. S's indifference to your ideas and authorship as any special negation towards you because you are a woman. He has, whenever it was possible, shown just the same blank towards Mr. Lewes, who certainly has more claims on him as an older friend 'abwho was'bb very generous to him in the days of his obscurity. With regard to not reading books or listening to ideas, I must again plead for him, as I have done before, that he is not a reader, and that his mind both "spontan'e9ment and syst'e9matiquement" rejects everything that cannot be wrought into the web of his own production. 779 He has this in common with many productive minds. And you must not regard him in the light of a person who will be moved by sympathies. We have long given up vain expectations from him and can therefore enjoy our regard for him without disturbance by his negations. He comes and consults us about his own affairs, and that is his way of showing friendship. We never dream of telling him our affairs, which would certainly not interest him. I write this only to prevent you from retaining the belief that he has any specially ignoring or contemning disposition towards you either as to your personality or your womanhood.
Your description of your astronomical pleasures at Llandudno makes us envy you. We have never seen Saturn's ring, nor Jupiter's moons -- [nor nuffin] -- except the wondrous eclipse of the moon which exhibited itself to perfection in front of our drawing-room window. 780
I am rather amazed at your enjoyment of [the New Republic.] To me it was a hateful book. But the Master of Balliol who is chiefly insulted is my particular friend.
Your loving
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
November 23.
My dear Sara
I enjoyed your letter greatly. Thank you for the exertion you undertook for my sake. I thoroughly appreciate the effort it requires to give oneself forth in a letter, and I hardly know how I should get through my life with decent regard to gratuitous correspondents' feelings if Mr. Lewes did not come to my rescue and do most of my [answering] for me.
But I want to tell you that you must not interpret H. S's indifference to your ideas and authorship as any special negation towards you because you are a woman. He has, whenever it was possible, shown just the same blank towards Mr. Lewes, who certainly has more claims on him as an older friend 'abwho was'bb very generous to him in the days of his obscurity. With regard to not reading books or listening to ideas, I must again plead for him, as I have done before, that he is not a reader, and that his mind both "spontan'e9ment and syst'e9matiquement" rejects everything that cannot be wrought into the web of his own production. 779 He has this in common with many productive minds. And you must not regard him in the light of a person who will be moved by sympathies. We have long given up vain expectations from him and can therefore enjoy our regard for him without disturbance by his negations. He comes and consults us about his own affairs, and that is his way of showing friendship. We never dream of telling him our affairs, which would certainly not interest him. I write this only to prevent you from retaining the belief that he has any specially ignoring or contemning disposition towards you either as to your personality or your womanhood.
Your description of your astronomical pleasures at Llandudno makes us envy you. We have never seen Saturn's ring, nor Jupiter's moons -- [nor nuffin] -- except the wondrous eclipse of the moon which exhibited itself to perfection in front of our drawing-room window. 780
I am rather amazed at your enjoyment of [the New Republic.] To me it was a hateful book. But the Master of Balliol who is chiefly insulted is my particular friend.
Your loving
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 23 November [1877], 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/94034