GHL to Philip Gilbert Hamerton, [Witley, 18? July 1878]
Title
GHL to Philip Gilbert Hamerton, [Witley, 18? July 1878]
Title
GHL to Philip Gilbert Hamerton, [Witley, 18? July 1878]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Philip Gilbert Hamer
Date(s)
- 1878-07-18
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GHL to Philip Gilbert Hamerton, [Witley, 18? July 1878]
Text: Philip Gilbert Hamerton, An Autobiography and a Memoir, London, 1897, pp. 459-60.
We left London before your book 453 arrived, but I sent for it, and Mrs. Lewes has been reading it aloud to me the last few evenings. It has charmed us both, and we regret that so good a scheme, so well carried out, should in the nature of case be one doomed to meet with small public response. No reader worth having can read it without interest and profit, but il s'agit de trouver des lecteurs. My son writes in great delight with it, and I have recommended it to the one person we have seen in our solitude, 454 but I fear you will find the deaf adder of a public deafer than usual to your charming. A volume of biographies of well-known Frenchmen would have but a slender chance of success -- and a volume on the unknown would need to be spiced with religion or politics -- et fortement 'e9pic'e9 -- to attract more than a reader here and there.
We are here for five weeks in our Paradise without the serpent (symbol of visitors!); but alas! without the health which would make the long peace one filled with work. As for me, I vegetate mostly. I get up at six to stroll out for an hour before breakfast, leaving Madonna in bed with Dante or Homer, and quite insensible to the attractions of before-breakfast walks.
With my cigar I get a little reading done, and sometimes write a little; but the forenoon is usually sauntered and pottered away. When Madonna has satisfied her inexhaustible craving for knowledge till nearly lunchtime, we play at lawn-tennis. Then drive out for two or three hours. Music and books till dinner. After cigar and nap, she reads to me till ten, and I finish by some light work till eleven. But I hope in a week or two to get stronger and able to work again, the more so as [the night in which no man can work] 455 is fast approaching.
Text: Philip Gilbert Hamerton, An Autobiography and a Memoir, London, 1897, pp. 459-60.
We left London before your book 453 arrived, but I sent for it, and Mrs. Lewes has been reading it aloud to me the last few evenings. It has charmed us both, and we regret that so good a scheme, so well carried out, should in the nature of case be one doomed to meet with small public response. No reader worth having can read it without interest and profit, but il s'agit de trouver des lecteurs. My son writes in great delight with it, and I have recommended it to the one person we have seen in our solitude, 454 but I fear you will find the deaf adder of a public deafer than usual to your charming. A volume of biographies of well-known Frenchmen would have but a slender chance of success -- and a volume on the unknown would need to be spiced with religion or politics -- et fortement 'e9pic'e9 -- to attract more than a reader here and there.
We are here for five weeks in our Paradise without the serpent (symbol of visitors!); but alas! without the health which would make the long peace one filled with work. As for me, I vegetate mostly. I get up at six to stroll out for an hour before breakfast, leaving Madonna in bed with Dante or Homer, and quite insensible to the attractions of before-breakfast walks.
With my cigar I get a little reading done, and sometimes write a little; but the forenoon is usually sauntered and pottered away. When Madonna has satisfied her inexhaustible craving for knowledge till nearly lunchtime, we play at lawn-tennis. Then drive out for two or three hours. Music and books till dinner. After cigar and nap, she reads to me till ten, and I finish by some light work till eleven. But I hope in a week or two to get stronger and able to work again, the more so as [the night in which no man can work] 455 is fast approaching.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Philip Gilbert Hamerton, [Witley, 18? July 1878], 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/94979