ABSTRACT
George Henry Lewes, is in one of his 'Vivian' letters in the Leader, claims to have known him in Vienna in 1839, when Franz Liszt was at the height of his fame as a concert pianist. Their meeting must have been a success; Liszt called at their lodgings to invite them both to breakfast at the Altenburg. The scandal surrounding their affair had prompted the Comtesse to break off her long-standing relationship with Liszt. Marian Evans's account of her first visit to the Altenburg, the house Liszt shared with Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein and her daughter Marie, is the longest entry for a single event in her diary of this journey. Like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he reigned at the centre of his own court, surrounded by a circle of like-minded friends and admirers. Most likely, Lewes hired a carriage, which took them through the town, over the Kegelbrucke, and up Jenaische Chaussee to the Altenburg.
