[...] Things are not well with me. I have not written a single note for more than two months. O God, if only one pleasant thing would happen to me! You have no idea what good it would do my health. A piece of really joyful news goes through my whole body like a refreshing thunder shower and does me more good than all the dietaries of all the physicians.
I have struck up a warm friendship with Auerbach during the last few days. He read me his new tale aloud and I told him for the first time the story of Tannhäuser. He is an excellent poet and what delight he takes in his poems! If I could only leave operatic composition alone and write books, I too should have a happier [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 125