MEREDITH, GEORGE (1528—). A distin guished English novelist and poet. He was born in Ilampshire, February 12, 1825, and received part of his early education in (,ermany—a land whose influence, especially through its poetry and music, is perceptible in his writings. On returning to England he studied law' for a while, but soon abandoned it, as his literary genius began to make itself felt. this first published poem. "Chillianwallah." appeared when lie Was only twenty-one, in Chambers's Journal 1•1nly, 1849). lie married a daughter of Thomas Love Peacock (q.v.), and it was to Peacock that ha' dedicated his first volume of poems (1551). Original and unique as Meredith's novels are, it is possible to trace in them an inheritanee from the dilettante, whimsical work of his father-iu law. Atter Thu Nharing of Nhogpal, 'an Arabian entertainment' (1856). and Farina. a bit of 1 ;crivall fairy-lore (1857), he published his first novel in 1859—strange as it now seems to asso ciate the two dates, the year of the publication of George Eliot's first novel. Adam Bede. This book. Thc Ordeal of ltiehard Petetel, which many of his admirers think lie has never surpassed, is. almost as much as Rousseau's Ensile, a formal treatise u11 Met 'KRIS of education, and at the same time contains some of his most beautiful passages in its bottler love-episodes. Eton Har rington (1801) was a more purely humorous treatment od the psychological problems in volved in the great question whether a tailor could be a gentleman. A year later appeared Lure. and Poems of the English Road side. The splendid sonnet-scquenee. Modcrn Lore, is now recognized as probably its author's high est and most durable achievement in the poetic form: but at the time it. was severely criticised, especially by the Spectator, in which Swinburne replied with a fervid eulogy. Among the few accessible biographical data. the close associa tion of three of the foremost writers of the een tur3 is worth mentioning; for a short time in 181i3. after the first two had lost their wives, :Meredith. Rossetti, and Swinburne shared a house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Emilia in. England (afterwards called Sandra Belloni) came out in 1864, and the next year Rhoda Fleming, as a story the shuplest and the hest told from an artistic point. of view; a savage (onslaught on the idols of fatuous respectability, a digging down to the elemental and primitive passions. When the W111' lit \ustria and Italy broke out in ISIOG, Meredith. who had already done consider able work in ,journalism, went out as the corre spondent of the Morning Post. Ile turned to good nevount the knowledge of Italy thus gained and his sympathy with 3Iazzini and the cause of Italian independence in his next hook, Vittoria, a sequel to Emilia in England (18117). For some thirty years he acted as literary adviser to the publishing house of Chapman & Hall, and helped many a young author by his wise and kindly criticism. Thomas Ilardy, in particular, has said that he would probably never have per severed in the path of literature without the emouragement which Aleredith gave him when he submitted his first matmseript. Meanwhile 3Ieredith was going on st(•adily with his own work. In 1871 he brought out 77or .Iderntarrs of /lorry Richmond, a roma nt i e noel, which is recommended to beginners as easier reading than the metaphysical, subtle, enigmatic style oof his later books. It had undoubtedly no small influence on younger writers. and the class of romantic stories at the head of whieh (11/0 tilay bo clea derived from it.
Bea ucha m ('are it I I~7111 is largely Ovellpied with English politic. standing aloof as 11,11:11 fr questions of actual detail. Meredith allowed his philosophie liberalism to he wean almost distinetly, though he did not declare for either side. After two short hut brilliant studies in comedy, The House on the Reach and The Case of (;$. 11r ru! and Ludy Cunflirr Mg77). he mad'. rho EY"ist a pitiless analysis of the selfishness innate in humanity as a whole.
In its central figure, Sir Willoughby l'afterne, the abstract egoist takes on final shape and becomes typical. In fact, it may be said of Meredith generally that, unlike most psychologi cal novelists, he gives its a psychology of types, not of individuals. Next came The Tale of Chloe (1879); The Tragic Comedians (1881)), recounting in the guise of fiction a decisive episode in the life of Ferdinand Lassalle, the Ger man Social-Democrat; and another volume of verse, Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of L'arth (1883). All tins time, in spite of such a bulk of admirable work, and though recognized by an increasing number of cultivated people. Mere dith had remained strangely unknown to the public at large—in this like Browning, with whom in many ways his genius had strong affinities. The publication of Diana of the Cross ways (1885), partly, perhaps, because its central episode bore a strong resemblance to an actual occurrence in English political life of a genera tion earlier, made a general impression. From this time he came more and more to be recog nized as the head of the profession of letters in England. He was elected president of the Brit ish Society of Authors on the death of Tennyson in 1892: and his appearance as the guest of honor at the meeting of the Omar Khayyam Club (an organization including many of the best-known men of letters) in 1895 was an event of singular interest, from the universal homage paid to him, as well as from the fact that lie then made what he called his first public speech. Throe more novels remain to be mentioned: On of Our Con querors (1891), Lord Ormont and His Amin la (1894), and The Amazing Marriage (1895), as well as three notable volumes of verse, Rallads and Poems of Tragic Life (1887). A Reading of Earth (1888). and The Empty Purse (1892). llis poems, like his novels, will probably never be popular; and for the same reason, that they require too much thought on the part of the reader. Vet as a poet he has 1111111y remarkable achievements to his credit, and none more signal than the expression of a perfect understanding of nature—nature as she is in herself, not. as with Byron and so many others. the mere reflex of the poet's temperament and moods.
His fiction is characteristic of an age of analy sis and introspection, when every art must take account of the results of psychology and meta physics. Ile is before all things a student of life.
attitude, as illuminated by the Essay On Comedy (1877). is not unlike that of his own Adrian Harley in &tete( : with an amused but not unkindly eynieism he stands otT and watches his (diameters net on each other as deliberately. as incoitably, and often through situations as apparently unimportant as in life. Ile slums us the progress from act to act of dramas sally philosophical, in the manner of Hamlet. We arc of Shakespeare again as We think of one of Meredith's strongest points—his gantry of fair women. types of the best in their age. for parallels to which we are driven to recur to Beatrice and Rosalind and Portia.
11is style is frequently obscure—not bemuse he eamna write simply. for (like Browning again) lie can give its "English as ripe and sound and unatTeeted as the heart emild wish." This aim. however. is not simplieily; it is to pack as much thought as possible into a phrase, to say only what is worth saying, and to say it in terms (-barged to the fullest with signifieance. The final verdict of his contemporaries, slowly though it was reached, is justified ( if there were nothing else) by his unquestioned intellectual eminence, by the constant distinction of his thought. Consult: Le Gallienne, George Mere dith: Aonle Characteristics, with a full bibliog raphy (3d ed., London, 1(100) ; Lynch. George Meredith (ib., 1891) : and essays by Henley. in Views and Reviews ( ib., 1:00) ; by Brownell, in Victorian Prose Masters (New York, 1001) ; also Cross, The Development of the English Yore/ (New York, 1899).