The Short Works of George Meredith: "The debts we owe ourselves are the hardest to pay."
()
About this ebook
George Meredith, OM, was born in Portsmouth, England on February 12th, 1828, a son and grandson of naval outfitters. His mother died when he was only five. As a fourteen year old teenager he was sent to a Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, staying there for two years. After reading law he was articled as a solicitor, but quickly abandoned that career path for journalism and poetry. He collaborated with Edward Gryffydh Peacock, son of Thomas Love Peacock in publishing a privately circulated literary magazine, the Monthly Observer. At age twenty-one he married Mary Ellen Nicolls, Edward Peacock's beautiful widowed sister, and mother of a child, on August 8th, 1849. Mary Ellen was twenty-eight. The marriage produced one child; Arthur (1853–1890). Meredith collected his early writings, all previously published in periodicals, in an 1851 volume, Poems. In 1856 he posed as the model for The Death of Chatterton, a well-known picture by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis, which romantised the teenage Chatterton’s demise. Although Meredith received some publicity for this his wife received rather more attention from Wallis because of it. Mary Ellen ran off with Wallis in 1858, shortly before giving birth to a child that all assumed to be Wallis. Tragically she died three years later. From that dreadful experience emerged a collection of sonnets entitled Modern Love in 1862 together with much of his first major novel; The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. Meredith married Marie Vulliamy on September 20th, 1864 and they settled in Surrey. Together they had two children; William (born in 1865) and Mariette (born in 1874). He continued writing novels and poetry, often inspired by nature. He had a keen understanding of comedy and his Essay on Comedy (1877) remains a reference work in the history of comic theory. In The Egoist, published in 1879, he applies some of his theories of comedy in one of his most thoughtful and enduring novels. During most of his career, he had difficulty crossing over from critical acclamation to popular success. It was only in 1885 that his first genuine commercial success appeared; Diana of the Crossways. An artist’s life throughout the ages, when not subsidised by a patron, is often difficult. Meredith found it no different. With an unreliable income stream he sought to bolster that with a job as a publisher's reader. The company that gave him this lifeline was Chapman & Hall (an eminent publishing house who could include Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Anthony Trollope on their roster). His advice to the company was very well received and made him influential in the world of letters. To this influence he was able to add a circle of friends that included William and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Cotter Morison, Leslie Stephen, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Gissing and J. M. Barrie. In 1868 Meredith was introduced to Thomas Hardy. Hardy had submitted his first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady. Meredith felt the book was too bitter a satire on the rich and told Hardy to put it aside as it was likely it would be savaged by reviewers and destroy his nascent career. Meredith had received the same reaction with The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. Although it had brought him success it was judged so shocking that Mudie's circulating library cancelled an order of 300 copies. But these years, creatively, were very prolific and successful for Meredith. Novels and poems flowed from his pen including everything from The Adventures of Harry Richmond to Diana of the Crossways and many poetry volumes include The Lark Ascending (which later inspired the Vaughan Williams music). In 1886, tragedy struck the Meredith household when his second wife, Marie Vulliamy, died of cancer. Whilst his personal life was producing horrendous scars he was receiving many accolades. Oscar Wilde was a fan. In The Decay of Lying, (originally published in
Read more from George Meredith
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: “We are betrayed by what is false within” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egoist: “Cynicism is intellectual dandyism. ” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Amazing Marriage: "There is nothing the body suffers which the soul may not profit by." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiana of the Crossways: “I expect that Woman will be the last thing civilized by Man.” Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rhoda Fleming: "Speech is the small change of silence." Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beauchamp's Career: “A woman who is not quite a fool will forgive your being but a man, if you are surely that. . .” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit: "Caricature is rough truth." Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Adventures of Harry Richmond: “A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sandra Belloni: Emila in England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne of Our Conquerors: "Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVittoria: “Perfect simplicity is unconsciously audacious.” Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Related to The Short Works of George Meredith
Related ebooks
One of Our Conquerors: "Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeauchamp's Career: “A woman who is not quite a fool will forgive your being but a man, if you are surely that. . .” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit: "Caricature is rough truth." Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Adventures of Harry Richmond: “A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vittoria: “Perfect simplicity is unconsciously audacious.” Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Sandra Belloni: Emila in England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Who Bought London: “An intellectual is someone who has found something more interesting than sex.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Talisman: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crotchet Castle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Novelists - George Meredith: psychological studies of character Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction Vol: 4: Sir Walter Scott Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Vicar of Wakefield (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAurora Floyd: or, The Dark Deed in the Wood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bethrothed: "Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSybil (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSome Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Master Criminal: "The great charm of this mode of life lies in the fact that it never lacks variety" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVignettes in Verses: 'For one, That might entirely prove the picture of my thought'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Virginians (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLimberham: or, The Kind Keeper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaughing at the King: Selected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCanterville Ghost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Statue by Arnold Bennett - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Moth: You think solely of yourself, your own pleasure, your own character, your own feelings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrench Pictures From France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReviews: “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tale of Two Cities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Statue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReviews Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmugglers and Smuggling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Short Works of George Meredith
0 ratings0 reviews