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C/o Mr Ratcliffe, Beech Lodge, Esplanade, Harrogate. - Thanks Trevelyan for J.C. ["Jean Christophe", Romain Rolland, see 3/31] and asks if he could borrow the other half. Was going to write a 'grateful letter' but thought the postcard would give more pleasure.

Harnham, Monument Green, Weybridge. - Only book of Trevelyan's which Forster has is R.R. [Romain Rolland, "Jean-Christophe"], which he has finished and will return. Meant to write about the 'N.P.' [Trevelyan's "The New Parsifal: An operatic fable"] which he very much enjoyed; also to ask where Trevelyan got his rugs, as he himself has to buy a carpet. Is writing some 'Indian articles' for the 'New Squeakly' ["New Weekly"]; this week's is on Jodhpur.

The Shiffolds, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking. - Bessie is getting on 'as well as can be expected in this cold weather'. The doctor is coming again tomorrow. Robert does not expect she will fully recover 'till after the confinement', but hopes the weather will become warmer, as 'the cold aggravates this particular ailment'. Bessie is coming down 'for tea now, instead of only for dinner'. Julian is well, and 'seems to like the cold weather'. Bessie has just finished the last volume of Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland], so he will send it on; has not read it himself yet, but does not want to until later, as he is rather busy now. Is making a 'long list of people' to send circulars about his book, with 'one or two specimen pages, and a list of contents probably''. Important that he should 'try and sell a few more than usual', to increase interest in the opera [The Bride of Dionysus, written with Donald Tovey]. His friend Abercrombie has lent him the list he used 'very successfully' for his own circulars, and Robert is adding more names. Asks if she would mind giving him addresses for the 'few people' he has written on an enclosed sheet [no longer present] if she knows them. The 'only chance now of getting anyone to buy poetry is to get at them by circulars', so is sending them to anyone he knows or 'knows about, who is at all likely'. Does not see why '[i]f one sends a notice of a concert or a picture exhibition' the same should not be done for a book.

Abercrombie's book Emblems of Love, published with John Lane, is 'very remarkable, and full of genius, but also rather unequal'; if she reads it, she should not read the long poem Vashti, at least until she has read the rest, as it is 'too long, and redundant, though often quite fine'. She need not worry about the addresses, but if she 'happen[s] to know them' it would be very kind if she could 'write them in'. Wants to send a circular to 'old Lord Peel', as he has heard Peel liked one of his books. Has 'over 600 addresses', though most are from Abercrombie's list.

Expects Bessie will write tomorrow, after the doctor has been. They are 'so sorry about Charles and Molly'; wishes Charles could 'get away to a warmer climate'. Sends love to his father.

The Shiffolds. - He and Bessie are very glad to hear his mother is 'so much better, and... will now be able to get out again'; hopes the weather will not be too cold. They are all very well, and their 'invalid guest, Mr [Gordon] Bottomley, is fairly well too'. Will be getting the proofs of his new comedy [The New Parsifal: An Operatic Fable] soon. Asks his father to tell his mother that their nurse, who said last month that she did not want to stay, has now changed her mind; she 'had felt lonely, as most nurses do so far in the country'. Since she is 'in many ways quite good, and as Julian is fond of her', they will at least keep her for the next few months and see if she suits them; it is a 'great relief for Bessie not to have to look for a new nurse at once'. They are probably taking Julian to London at the end of the month 'to go for a time to an infants' school, as he sees too little of other children'.

Interesting that his father's 'American friend [the Secretary of the American Legation in Rome, see 12/207, possibly Arthur Frazier] should put [Rolland's] Jean Christophe on a par with Balzac and the great Russian novelists'; does not think he could ever do so himself, since though he 'admire[s] parts of Jean Christophe a good deal', on the whole it seems to him 'inorganic and often dull, with very little narrative interest'. It is however 'very typical in many respects of modern intellectual and artistic tendencies'.

Palace Hôtel, Rome. - Has not been reading "The Brothers Karamazov"; was amused by the first two chapters, but they support Robert's observations about 'the hysterical character'; Caroline was also 'stuck' for the same reason. Has seen much of the 'unusually clever and well read American Secretary of Legation' [Arthur Frazier, acting Secretary?], who says the 'three great epochs in foreign novels' are that of Balzac, the Russian epoch (especially 'Tolstoi and Turgenieff') and the Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland] epoch. The American ambassador, Page, is also a 'man of letters and means', of the same family as the American ambassador in England. Caroline has now been in bed with bronchitis for almost five weeks, and the doctors cannot say when she will be better; she is 'wonderfully patient'.

Harnham, Monument Green, Weybridge. - Asks if Trevelyan could lend him some books as the L[ondon] L[ibrary] has failed him; would like some of: Jean Christophe [by Romain Rolland]; Butler's "Life or Habit" [sic: "Life and Habit", Samuel Butler], "Luck or Cunning" and "Evolution Old and New"; Dostoieffsky, "Les Possédés" [Dostoevsky, "Demons"] but not "L'Idiote" as he jokingly says he has 'déjà stucké dans le'. Asks if Trevelyan has read Gertrude Bone's "Women of the Country"; thinks Miss Mayor's book [F.M. Mayor, "The Third Miss Symons"?] is also good. Asks what Trevelyan thinks of Mrs Cornford's "Morality" [Frances Cornford, "Death and the Princess: A Morality"]: he found the middle dull but the end beautiful. Masood is marrying the niece of Sultan Ahmed Khan. Is going to visit Mrs [Hope] Wedgwood at Idlerocks in Staffordshire, then to Meredith in Ireland.

12 Pembroke Gardens, Kensington, W. - Trevelyan's corrected copy [of his poem The Lady's Bat, for Sickert's anthology The Bird In Song, see 6/47] arrived in good time, and the book is to go to the printers next Thursday. Is annoyed about the 'shabby' nature of the printing, and that they have had to include 'a wearisome effusion of Watts-Dunton's' in order to be allowed Swinburne's Itylus; would like to 'stick' it in the preface and claim there was not time to put it in properly, with the added advantage of putting people off reading the preface. Is also unhappy about the frontispiece. Thinks the book will be out about Easter, not much before due to the addition of American classics such as Whitman - 'no moderns thank goodness'. Recommends Jean Christophe by Romain Rolland, brother-in-law of [Michel] Bréal. He and his 'collaborator' [Stanley Makower] will be pleased to present Trevelyan with a copy of the anthology.

K[ing's] C[ollege] C[ambridge] [on All Souls Place headed notepaper]. - Should like to visit Trevelyan. Does not know what to say about the Dales: feels he needs to aim at less picturesque scenery as he is trying to write, and in the Dales he just wants to walk all day. Is bored by [Romain Rolland's] 'Jean-Christophe'.

Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Was very sad yesterday to be going further from Elizabeth [since the baby is due]. London was 'horrid... dark & dirty & noisy'. Left Pantlin in low spirits, but she writes that the [nursing] home is nice; believes her operation is today. McKenzie said there was nothing wrong with Sir George's ear, having 'looked into it with an electric light!'. Rolandi does not have [Rolland's] "Jean Christophe", so she will send for it from the London Library. Hopes that Mr [Donald] Tovey's concert was a success. Can come to Surrey via Reading and Gomshall, though Sir George 'very strangely' objects to her returning this week; can start at short notice.