Meredith

MEREDITH, George, English poet am novelist: b. Hampshire, 12 Feb. 1828; d. Lon don, 18 May 1909. Details of Meredith's hie are meagre; little is known of his parentage cr of his education except that he was sem school in Germany and later studied law. vatic he gave up for literature. For a time be was: pupil T. L. Peacock (q.v.), whose dangbtr became his first wife. His residence was fw some years at Box Hill in Surrey.

His first work in literature was a volume of poems published in 1851. This was followed a 1856, by 'The Shaving of Shagpat,' a brilliant fantastic Oriental tale in which some have professed to see a political satire 'The Ordeal of Richard Feverel' however, he began the course of studies in he man temperament which have made his nase famous. The novel, unquestionably one of thi most powerful in the language, deals with the ordeal of adjustment to the world of a hies spirited youth; it is the conflict between ma perament and desire, represented in the bet: and a variety of conventions, most rigidly tys fied in the *system* of his father, Sir Anita Feverel. The effect of the book is die; tragic. 'Evan Hairington' (1861), the nec novel, is wholly comic in idea ; the character; are embodiments of various *humors,* mac strikingly represented in the intriguing C,otar ess; the plot, as in all of Meredith's novels, quite secondary in interest and springs free the characters. Love,' a sequence ot brilliantly phrased, intricate, 16-lined souses was published in 1861. 'Emilia in England' now called 'Sandra Belloni,> appeared in I& and its sequel 'Vittoria' three years later. 11-.• story is that of a young Italian girl of unaf fected manners and character and her iir among people of very diverse and social ideas; the theme of the novel eu be regarded as the conflict, among very rei people, of the genuine with the sentimenu character. Between the two novels appearoc in 1865 < , 'Rhoda Fleming,' perhaps the simple of all Meredith's novels in style and a poor ful study in character. It deals, on the whelc with a conventionally more humble order society than is usually found in Meredith's no els, and is rather more direct, but few this; in fiction are more impressive than the aim." instinctive steadfastness of the heroine or mom gloomy than the spiritual confusion that sir tries to set in order. In 'The Adventures 0! Harry Richmond) the note is again die' comic. Much of Meredith's best work lies it the freshness of the varied scenes of this book and in the hero's father is perhaps as typical character of the novelist as can be found, a ca' whose adventurous fancy and devotion to h' son *informs' numberless odd and extravaire acts. Another excellent study of a differrm

sort is 'Beauchamp's Career) (1876). It is the analytical, yet lively, story of a young ma whose earnestness of character and whose aC" tivity caused him, from a conventional point of view, to fail in life. Like other of Meredith's novels it is a great contribution to our under standing of the varieties of human temperament and to our sympathy with them.

In The es sence of this essay is that comedy is one of the most wholesome and effectual ways of prob ing and purifying the ills of the world, that good comedy, as in the plays of Moliere, really enables the reader to recognize what is genu ine and discard what is sentimental; unfortu nately, instead of good comedy we often are treated, in most literature, to painful moraliz ings. Meredith's fullest and finest expression of this idea is in his 'The (1879), un questionably his masterpiece and one of the chief glories of English fiction. Egoism, that love of self which prevents men from seeing things in their true relations, is one of the fundamental failings of mankind and Mere dith has drawn it, in the inimitable Sir Wil loughby Patterne, as a figure of colossal pro portions. The novelist's skill and dispassion ateness as an artist was never better shown than in the fact that he refuses to give conven tional rewards and punishments; for the hero's unfailing egoism permits him in the end to turn to the flattering of his vanity what would ordinarily be regarded as humiliation.