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George Meredith (February 12, 1828 - May 18, 1909) was an English novelist and poet.
He was born in Portsmouth, England. 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 abadoned that profession for writing shortly after marrying Mary Ellen Nicolls, a widowed daughter of Thomas Love Peacock in 1849. He collected his early writings, first published in periodicals, into Poems, which was published to some acclaim in 1851. His wife left him in 1858 and died three years later.
Meanwhile he had begun writing novels and first achieved distinction in that genre with The Ordeal of Richard Feveral. He married Marie Vulliamy in 1864 and settled in Surrey. He continued writing novels, and later in life he returned to writing poetry, often inspired by nature.
As an advisor to publishers, Meredith is credited with helping Thomas Hardy start his literary career.
Works include:
Novels
- The Shaving of Shagpot(1856)
- Farina(1857)
- The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859)
- Evan Harrington(1861)
- Emilia in England(1864),republished as Sandra Belloni in 1887
- Rhoda Fleming(1865)
- Vittoria(1867)
- The Adventures of Harry Richmond(1871)
- Beauchamp's Career(1875)
- The House on the Beach(1877)
- The Case of General Ople and Lady Camper(1877)
- The Tale of Chloe(1879)
- The Egoist (1879)
- The Tragic Comedians(1880)
- Diana of the Crossways (1885)
- One of our Conquerours(1891)
- Lord Ormont and his Aminta(1894)
- The Amazing Marriage(1895)
Poetry
- Poems(1851)
- Modern Love (1862)
- Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth (1883)
- A Faith on Trial(1885)
- Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life(1887)
- A Reading of Earth(1888)
- The Empty Purse(1892)
- Odes in Contribution to the Song of French History(1898)
- A Reading of Life(1901)
- Last Poems(1909)
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