George Meredith was both a novelist and poet. Born in Portsmouth, England , his work is used as a classic example of Victorian literature.

A Welsh mountaineer's daughter marries the most fashionable rake in England, and then declines to be ruined by him. Meredith's last completed novel turns the standard seduction plot inside out and hands the strength to the wife; the style is famously difficult, which is why other novelists admired him more than the public did.

Cologne in the Middle Ages: a young man, a girl, a smell of sanctity, and the Devil — Meredith's first novel and a burlesque, in which the perfume that made Cologne famous is traced to a source no one expected. He read manuscripts for a publisher for years, turning down other men's novels; this 1857 book is the one where his own style had not yet become difficult, and it is very funny.

Milan under the Austrians, 1848: a singer at La Scala is to give the signal for the rising from the stage, and half the conspirators do not trust her because her mother was English. Meredith wrote it as a sequel to Sandra Belloni and took the revolution from Italians who had fought it; the crowd scenes are the best he ever did, and the politics are unusually adult — everyone is brave and nearly everyone is wrong.

A financier of enormous credit slips on a piece of orange peel on London Bridge, and the fall — social, marital, mental — takes the rest of the book. The marriage at the centre of his fortune was never legal, and everyone he entertains knows it. Meredith wrote for years as a publisher's reader, keeping other men's novels out, and his own late style here is so compressed that Stevenson called reading him a physical exercise.

Harry Richmond grows up between a placid English squire and a magnificent father who may be a prince of the blood or may be a confidence man, and who stages a life of such splendour that the question hardly gets asked. Meredith read manuscripts for a publisher for years, turning down other men's novels; this is his warmest book, and the father is one of the great creations in English — impossible to believe and impossible to give up.

Sir Willoughby Patterne is handsome, rich, generous and admired, and the novel is the slow, exact demonstration of what it is like to be engaged to him. Meredith's style won him more admirers among writers than readers — he worked for years as a publisher's reader — and here the difficulty pays: nobody has ever anatomised male vanity so completely, and Clara Middleton's attempts to get free are as tense as any thriller.

The Shaving of Shagpat isn't just George Meredith's first published novel, it's also his only foray into fantasy literature. Shagpat sold poorly in its day despite good reviews, and after its disappointing sales Meredith pursued a career as a writer of romantic fiction instead. Despite its poor financial reception, Shagpat enjoys a good modern reputation and remains a classic of fantasy literature, with George Eliot going so far as to call it a "work of genius."The book is set in t...

The novel recounts the story of self-absorbed Sir Willoughby Patterne and his attempts at marriage; jilted by his first bride-to-be, he vacillates between the sentimental Laetitia Dale and the strong-willed Clara Middleton. More importantly, the novel follows Clara's attempts to escape from her engagement to Sir Willoughby, who desires women to serve as a mirror for him and consequently cannot understand why she would not want to marry him. Thus, The Egoist dramatizes the difficulty contin...

The Ordeal of Richard Feverel is a profound and psychologically rich novel that explores the complexities of human development, love, and the consequences of rigid ideals. Written by George Meredith, this classic work stands out for its intellectual depth, emotional intensity, and keen insight into the tensions between natural instinct and imposed discipline. At the center of the story is Richard Feverel, the only son of Sir Austin Feverel, a man determined to raise his child according to ...

23 Complete Works of George MeredithBeauchamps CareerCelt and Saxon, CompleteDiana of the Crossways, CompleteEssay on Comedy Comic SpiritEvan HarringtonFarinaLord Ormont and his Aminta, CompleteMiscellaneous ProseOne of Our ConquerorsRhoda FlemingSandra Belloni, CompleteThe Adventures Harry RichmondThe Amazing MarriageThe Case of General Ople and Lady CamperThe EgoistThe Entire ...

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