Complete Short Works of George Meredith
Complete Short Works of George Meredith
George Meredith belongs among the great Victorians, yet his shorter works have lingered in shadow far too long. This collection gathers the stories that announced a writer of striking originality: tales of romantic rivalry, dangerous liaisons, and high adventure that blend period flair with Meredith's signature wit and psychological edge. "Farina" opens the volume in medieval Cologne, where a merchant's daughter becomes the prize in a chivalric contest among the White Rose Club, but beneath the romance and pageantry lies something sharper, more knowing about the games people play. The remaining pieces range across territory both dark and comic, from ghostly encounters to society's absurdities, each showcasing a mind that would later reshape the English novel. These are not mere apprentice works but fully realized short fictions from a writer who counted Hardy, Tennyson, and Dickinson among his admirers. For readers who know Meredith only from "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" or his revolutionary prose style, these stories reveal the fountainhead: the early, inventive workings of a major literary intelligence.
