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Meredith, George

Meredith, George (1828–1909), had a precarious childhood in Portsmouth as the son of an indigent tailor who was early a widower—a background which Meredith was later at pains to conceal. He was intermittently educated in Portsmouth and Southsea, and then at the unusual school of the Moravians at Neuwied in Germany. In 1849 he married Mary Ellen Nicholls, the widowed daughter of Peacock, and in 1851 published his own Poems. His series of Oriental fantasies, The Shaving of Shagpat (1856), was well received by the critics. In 1857 his wife left him for Henry Wallis, the painter. His first major novel, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), caused much scandal, but it brought praise from reviewers and the friendship of Carlyle and the Pre-Raphaelites.

Meredith was now contributing to many periodicals, including the Fortnightly Review, in which Evan Harrington began to appear in 1860; in the same year he became reader for Chapman and Hall (a post he retained until 1894). Modern Love and Poems of the Roadside appeared in 1862; Emilia in England in 1864, retitled Sandra Belloni in 1886; Rhoda Fleming in 1865; and Vittoria (a sequel to Sandra Belloni) began to appear in 1866 before its publication in book form in 1867. Meredith's reputation was growing steadily with the discerning public. He married Marie Vulliamy in 1864. The Adventures of Harry Richmond (1871) brought him the friendship of Milnes. A political novel, Beauchamp's Career, followed in 1876. The novel for which he is chiefly celebrated, The Egoist, appeared in 1879; The Tragic Comedians in 1880; Diana of the Crossways in 1885; One of our Conquerors in 1891; Lord Ormont and his Aminta in 1894; and The Amazing Marriage in 1895. A collection of short stories, including the celebrated ‘The Case of General Ople and Lady Camper’, appeared in 1898. Further volumes of verse include Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth (1883, containing ‘Love in a Valley’); Ballads…of Tragic Life (1887); A Reading of Earth (1888, containing ‘Hymn to Colour’); and Last Poems (1909).

Meredith's reputation stood very high well into this century, with his perceptive portrayal of women, his narrative skill, and his incisive dialogue receiving most praise; but the deliberate intricacy of much of his prose defeats many modern readers, and for the last 50 years or so neither his poetry nor his novels have received any great popular or critical acclaim.