Knowra George Meredith George Meredith George Meredith (1828–1909) was an English novelist and poet whose psychologically intricate fiction and formally inventive poetry include The Egoist and Modern Love.
The Egoist : George Meredith’s 1879 comic novel follows a self-absorbed baronet whose fiancée struggles to escape him. Meredith’s best-known novel turns his interest in egotism into a social comedy.
Irony : Irony is a contrast between an apparent meaning or expectation and the meaning conveyed by words, events, or outcomes. Meredith’s narrators expose characters’ self-deceptions without simply stating a moral.
Thomas Hardy : Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet whose fiction often depicts individuals constrained by social forces and fate. Hardy succeeded Meredith as a prominent late-Victorian novelist and admired his literary example.
Portsmouth : Portsmouth is a port city on England’s southern coast. Meredith was born in Portsmouth in 1828.
The Tragic Comedians : The Tragic Comedians is George Meredith’s 1880 novel, inspired by the lives of Ferdinand Lassalle and Helene von Dönniges. Its politically charged love story shows Meredith drawing on contemporary European history.
Modern Love : George Meredith’s 1862 sequence of fifty sonnets portrays the breakdown of a marriage. Its compressed, shifting sonnets reveal the formal boldness of Meredith’s poetry.
Free indirect discourse : Free indirect discourse presents a character’s thoughts in third-person narration while retaining elements of the character’s voice. This technique lets Meredith’s narration move between social observation and a character’s perspective.
Leslie Stephen : Leslie Stephen was an English critic, biographer, and editor who helped shape Victorian literary culture. Stephen’s praise helped establish Meredith’s standing among contemporary literary figures.
Victorian literature : Victorian literature comprises writing produced during Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837 to 1901. Meredith’s career unfolded within Victorian debates about class, gender, and social change.
Edwardian literature : Edwardian literature is writing produced during the reign of Edward VII, from 1901 to 1910. Meredith’s late reputation carried into the literary culture that followed the Victorian period.
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