Pursuing his end, an analysis and a synthe sis of the springs which govern action, Mere dith in his next novel, 'The Tragic Comedians) (1880) took a story from contemporary Euro pean court life and explained it as a piece of dramatic psychology. The comparative short ness of the novel makes it a good study of the author's method. This novel, too, indicated a tendency on his part to depict the motives and the psychology of people actually in existence rather than, as in The Egoist' and its prede cessors, to draw the embodiment of a type of °humor." This tendency was certainly evident in his next novel, 'Diana of the Crossways' (1885), his greatest popular success, and is shown in the fact that certain of the incidents and characters excited curiosity as, to their originals. It is manifest also in his last three books, 'One of Our Conquerors' (1890), 'Lord Ormont and His Aminta) (1894) and 'The Amazing Marriage' (1895), which are perhaps less broadly representative and more particular than his earlier novels. Meredith's writings also include four short stories, 'The Tale of Chloe,' 'The House on the Beach,' 'Farina) and 'The Case of General Ople and Lady Meredith, who was one of the last great novelists to hold over, as it were, from the. age of Victorian literature, belongs to the so-called psychological school, of which the great popu lar representative is George Eliot, with whom he is practically contemporary. He differs from her in several important respects: The comedy of character (as the term is under stood with Cervantes and Moliere) as well as the tragic side of life, is reflected in his pages. His attitude is detached and impersonal and he never allows his sympathies to intrude upon his study of the type he is treating, a characteristic which accounts for the criticism sometimes made that he lacks temperament and which is doubtless one of the reasons for his compara tive unpopularity. He is more interested in his characters as types of temperament than as in dividuals, and in this field he has perhaps rep resented the greatest range and variety of hu man motive that is to be found in English fic tion. Taking strata of society, on the whole,
conventionally above those treated by George Eliot, he has made them representative of a great variety of °comic° motives. As a moral ist, his attack has been upon those types which are broadly termed sentimental, and in this re spect his pictures of such men as Wilfred Pole and Willoughby Patterne are inimitable. The person that he most approves is the simple, con siderate, intelligent being, well represented in such minor heroes as Merthyr Powys, Vernon Whitford, Dartrey Fennellan and Tom Red worth, and pictured to the height of brilliancy in his real heroines. In no other novelist, in no English writer except Shakespeare, can be found so splendid a galaxy of women: Rose Jocelyn, Janet Ilchester, Renee, Cecilia Hilkett, Jenny Denham, Clara Middleton, Emilia, Carin thia Jane and many others, as well as such older ladies as Lady Jocelyn and Lady Char lotte Eglett, are the best tribute to womankind that English literature possesses, and the crea tion of them is an achievement of the very first rank. His style is frequently criticized as in volved and epigrammatic, but no novel con tains passages of greater poetical charm. See DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS; EGOIST, THE; MOD ERN LOVE; ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL, THE.
The best complete Amer ican edition of the poems and novels is by Messrs. Scribner, in 16 volumes. Commentary is scattering and appears chiefly in the form of contemporary reviews. Consult Brownell, 'Vic torian Prose Masters> (1901); Lynch, Han nah, 'George Meredith) (1E91); and, for a varied symposium, LeGallienne, (George Mere dith, Some Characteristics; with a Bibliog raphy by John Lane); and for his place in the history of the novel, Cross, 'The Development of the English Novel> (1899). Consult also Ellis, S. M., 'George Meredith: His Life and Friends) (London 1919).
W. T. Bav,vsTER, Professor of English, Columbia University.