George Meredith was a prominent English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He began his literary career focusing primarily on poetry, drawing early inspiration from Romantic poets like John Keats. Over time, however, Meredith transitioned toward prose, gradually building a formidable reputation as a novelist whose work challenged the conventional boundaries of Victorian literature.
His early novel, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), caused a brief scandal within Victorian literary circles due to its themes. Despite early controversies, Meredith went on to produce highly regarded works, including The Egoist (1879), which remains his most enduring novel, and Diana of the Crossways (1885), which achieved the greatest commercial and critical success during his lifetime. His writing was highly innovative for its deep attention to the psychology of his characters and its keen portrayal of contemporary social change.
Meredith's style in both poetry and prose was celebrated for its syntactic complexity and intellectual depth, prompting Oscar Wilde to famously compare it to "chaos illumined by brilliant flashes of lightning." Beyond his own writing, Meredith was a supportive figure in the literary community, encouraging and influencing younger writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson and George Gissing. His significant contributions to literature earned him seven nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
