George Meredith

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Our life is but a little holding, lent To do a mighty labour: we are one With heaven and the stars when it is spent To serve God's name: else die we with the sun. George Meredith cherished this quatrain from his novel Vittoria, and it is spread on an open book as the headstone to his grave in Dorking cemetery.

The 'other' George is a great favourite of mine whose reputation has sufferred I think an unfair decline since he was lionised in the early part of the 20th Century. The poetry and early novels in particular are worthy of greater attention than they currently receive. There is an irony in comparing him with his contemporary Thomas Hardy. Meredith the optimist, full of life's vigour aquired in later life a difficult style that to some extent obscured his brilliance. Hardy on the other hand masked depressing themes in beautiful words.

E-Texts

Love in the Valley Final Version 1878 (From "Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth")

Lucifer in Starlight

The Lark Ascending

The Woods of Westermain

Other Material

Mary Ellen Meredith, was George Meredith's first wife. The break up of their marriage was the inspiration for the sonnet series Modern Love and she was also the model for the heroine of his later novel The Egoist.

Portrait of Mary Ellen Meredith by Henry Wallis R.W.S., (British, 1830-1916). Dated 1858, pencil. 4 x 3 1/4 in. (10.2 x 8.3 cm.)

1908 post card of George Meredith's cottage at Box Hill in Surrey.

Links:

George Meredith at the Victorian Web

www.literaryhistory.com/19thC/MEREDITH.htm

www.informika.ru/text/books/gutenb/gutind/TEMP/meredith_george_.html

The Country of George Meredith

The Alliance of Literary Societies

Links to E-Texts on other sites.

Online Books Page Author Search.

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Last modified: January 1, 2005 11:43 AM