D'Albert-Durade, Francois (1804-1886)

George Eliot boarded with Francois D'Albert-Durade for five months in his residence in Geneva, Switzerland during her first trip to continental Europe after her father's death. Eliot wrote to the Brays professing to love D'Albert as both a brother and father, claiming that she had 'not heard a word or seen a gesture of his yet that was not perfectly in harmony with an exquisite moral refinement indeed one feels a better person always when he is present.' Due to physical deformity in his spine caused by a childhood injury, some believe D'Albert to be the model of Philip Wakem in Mill on the Floss. D'Albert painted the portrait of Eliot in February 1850, which now hangs in the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry.
When it became time for Eliot to return to England, she was very sad to leave the D'Alberts, and he accompanied her all the way to England as a measure of protection. After his return to Geneva, the two kept in touch by letters, written in French. Eliot addressed him in the familiar form after obtaining permission from his wife, Julie, to do so. D'Albert later burned the letters, fearing that they might be misinterpreted. Upon the revelation that Marian had 'married' George Henry Lewes and that she had become the novelist George Eliot, D'Albert responded that he had already read Scenes of Clerical Life and expressed interest in translating it to French. After obtaining permission from her, D'Albert translated Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, and Scenes of Clerical Life into French.

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

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GE to Francois D'albert-Durade, Wandsworth, 18 October 1859
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Wandsworth, 6 December 1859
GE to Francois D'albert-Durade, Wandsworth, 28 January 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Wandsworth, 7 February 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade,, London, 7 February 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Venice, 7 June 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Geneva, 28 June 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Wandsworth, 18 September 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 6 December 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, [29 January 1861]
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 15 June 1861
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 26 August 1861
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 January 1862
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 5 July 1862
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 September 1862
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 28 November 1862(1)
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 28 November 1862(2)
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 5 April [1863]
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 18 July 1863
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 28 November 1863
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 24 June 1864
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 12 January 1865
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 17 December 1865
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 21 September 1866
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 12 April 1867
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 30 January 1868
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, [July 1868]
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 January 1871
GE to Francois D'albert-Durade, London, 25 April 1871
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 13 September 1871
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 29 January 1872
GE to Francois D'albert-Durade, London, 31 October 1872
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 21 March 1873
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Homburg, 9 August 1873
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 23 February 187[4]
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 20 March 1875
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 13 October 1875
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 2 September 1876
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 27 November 1877
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Witley, 1 August 1878
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 9 March 1879
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 25 November 1879
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, London, 28 March 1880
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Witley, 15 November 1880
GE to Francois D'Albert-Durade, Rome, 17 April 1860
GE to Francois D'Albert Durade, London, 27 January 1871

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Francois D'Albert-Durade (1804-1886), D'Albert-Durade, Francois (1804-1886), Social Network Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed November 11, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/97164