The Adventures of Harry Richmond

by George Meredith

George Meredith, OM (12 February 1828 - 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. LIFE: Meredith was born in Portsmouth, England, a son and grandson of naval outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, where he remained for two years. He read law and was articled as a solicitor, but abandoned that profession 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. He married Edward Peacock's widowed sister Mary Ellen Nicolls in 1849 when he was twenty-one years old and she was twenty-eight. Meredith collected his early writings, first published in periodicals, in an 1851 volume, Poems. In 1856 he posed as the model for The Death of Chatterton, a notable painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis (1830-1916). His wife ran off with Wallis in 1858; she died three years later. The collection of "sonnets" entitled Modern Love (1862) emerged from this experience as did The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, his first "major novel." Meredith married Marie Vulliamy in 1864 and settled in Surrey. 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 enduring novels. Some of his writings, including The Egoist, also highlight the subjugation of women during the Victorian period. During most of his career, he had difficulty achieving popular success. His first successful novel was Diana of the Crossways published in 1885.Meredith supplemented his often uncertain writer's income with a job as a publisher's reader. His advice to Chapman and Hall made him influential in the world of letters. His friends in the literary world included, at different times, William and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Cotter Morison, Leslie Stephen, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Gissing and J. M. Barrie. His contemporary Sir Arthur Conan Doyle paid him homage in the short-story The Boscombe Valley Mystery, when Sherlock Holmes says to Dr. Watson during the discussion of the case, "And now let us talk about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all minor matters until to-morrow." Oscar Wilde, in his dialogue The Decay of Lying, implies that Meredith, along with Balzac, is his favourite novelist, saying "Ah, Meredith! Who can define him? His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning." In 1868 Meredith was introduced to Thomas Hardy by Frederic Chapman of Chapman & Hall the publishers. Hardy had submitted his first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady. Meredith advised Hardy not to publish his book as it would be attacked by reviewers and destroy his hopes of becoming a novelist. Meredith felt the book was too bitter a satire on the rich and counselled Hardy to put it aside and write another 'with a purely artistic purpose' and more of a plot. Meredith spoke from experience; his first big novel, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, was judged so shocking that Mudie's circulating library had cancelled an order of 300 copies. Hardy continued in his attempts to publish the novel: however it remained unpublished, though he clearly took Meredith's advice seriously. Before his death, Meredith was honoured from many quarters: he succeeded Lord Tennyson as president of the Society of Authors; in 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII. In 1909, he died at his home in Box Hill, Surrey. He is buried in the cemetery at Dorking, Surrey.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

588 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1871

About the author

George Meredith of Britain wrote novels, such as The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), and poetic works, including Modern Love (1862).

During the Victorian era, Meredith read law, and people articled him as a solicitor, but shortly after marrying Mary Ellen Nicolls, a 30-year-old widowed daughter of Thomas Love Peacock, in 1849 at 21 years of age, he abandoned that profession for journalism.

He collected his early writings, first published in periodicals, into Poems, which was published to some acclaim in 1851. His wife left him and their five-year old son in 1858; she died three years later. Her departure was the inspiration for The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), his first "major novel." It was considered a breakthrough novel, but its sexual frankness caused a scandal and prevented it from being widely read.

As an advisor to publishers, Meredith is credited with helping Thomas Hardy start his literary career, and was an early associate of J. M. Barrie. Before his death, Meredith was honored from many quarters: he succeeded Lord Tennyson as president of the Society of Authors; in 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII.

His works include: The Shaving of Shagpat (1856), Farina (1857), Vittoria (1867) and The Egoist (1879). The Egoist is one of his most enduring works.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

George^Meredith

Reviews

[Richard S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much I read it again when I was done. While written in a disjointed and entirely unique style, I found this book a kind of modernist classic. The treatment of characters is superb, and his descriptions can be exquisite. A real surprise. Another book on the list that mysteriously did not seem to survive long-term, probably because of its difficulty.

[Erich C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 7 in the Lineal Challenge (one book per year of publication, 1865-2000)!

Book 1 in the Try Not To Skim Challenge! This book contained 230,456 words. About 100,000 of them were used in sentences that were very opaque. There is a good story here of a loveable rogue, but it isn't a good enough story to make it worth reading again.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can I just say how lovely it is to see that no one has given this one or two stars! And most of the ratings are full scores! I mean, there are sixteen of them in total, but someone has even gone to the length of writing a review – a positive one! Jessica rejoices in her lone Meredithian outpost!

She gives Harry Richmond three stars, though. This book was we-eird! And on a par with Richard Feverel in terms of structural effectiveness, I thought. Freud would have had a field day with the paternal relationships here, if even I detected something fishy abroad (there’s still something that gets me about Richmond Roy’s lobster likeness in that statue scene), and the events were generally just so outlandish that it was hard to get the groove of this one at large. On a related note, I had more difficulties with basic comprehension here, mostly on the level of sentences, as I recall, but also when it came to Kiomi’s relationship to...Herriot, if I’m not mistaken. Perhaps Meredith leaned heavier into symbols than motifs with this one, and I’m usually reticent about interpretation, and Meredith’s prose is cryptic enough by default, but anyway this novel felt a bit stiff in the joints at times. Nowhere else in those of his I've read, however, are the downs as utterly poetic, and I might even associate my impressions of the actual setting more with Harry Richmond than with Beauchamp’s Career, which I read in reverse order during and after a trip to Box Hill. Yes, there’s a streak of magnetism about this book, as befits Meredith’s fiction.

[Dave Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curate's egg. (I know that term gets misused, but it's useful.) The character of the father is brilliant, right down to the way his name (and his name for his son) is as Protean as his fortunes. I've known people like that with multiple names and they're always interesting trouble. The way the grandfather uses threat of disinheritance to manipulate Harry is also very true to life. Other characters are well-drawn, and there are flashes of poetic prose (unsurprisingly).

But it's too long, and too long-winded, and sometimes phrased so obliquely that I couldn't figure out what the narrator was talking about. When Meredith's inspiration flags, as in the German chapters, I found myself skim-reading, and even then it's taken me over two weeks to finish it.

The ending is so classic/cliché Victorian that I'm surprised the BBC never got Andrew Davies to adapt it. I was hoping the romantic denouement would hook Harry up with the gypsy girl Kiomi but I guess that was never on the cards for a novel published in 1870; instead his choice is between two safe options, posh or bourgeois. The BBC version might have changed that. Oh well.

[LW · Rating 2 out of 5]

Er leek maar geen eind te komen aan dit boek, en ik had ook geen idee waar het heen ging, als het al een doel had. Het had ook niet veel van Merediths schoonschrijverij, een van zijn troeven. Ik zag niets bijzonders in Harry zelf, behalve dan dat hij bewust blind is voor het egocentrisme van het charmante monster dat zijn vader was. Waarom ik altijd kwaad word als er hopen geld worden verspild in boeken, fictieve bedragen gespendeerd aan fictieve dingen, zal een analist eens moeten uitleggen. Alleen op het eind werd het interessant, waar Harry’s vader Roy, de Duitse prinses in de val lokt in de hoop dat ze gedwongen met Harry moet trouwen om haar reputatie te redden. Hij kent zijn zoon dan toch niet goed genoeg om te weten dat hij zijn hand hier overspeelt. En de liefdeskeuze van Harry, die uiteindelijk toch belandt bij de vrouw voor wie hij bestemd werd door zijn grootvader. De grootvader en de vader zijn de interessante karakters. Harry is een vod. Ik heb hier niet elk woord van gelezen, het enerveerde me te veel.

[Joshua Gillelan]

Very different from his other novels I've read. Very little outright humor, but psychological study of (mostly) title character.