Novel
The Egoist
George Meredith · 1879
Opening lines
There was an ominously anxious watch of eyes visible and invisible over the infancy of Willoughby, fifth in descent from Simon Patterne, of Patterne Hall, premier of this family, a lawyer, a man of solid acquirements and stout ambition […]
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Sir Willoughby Patterne possesses a fine estate, a fine fortune and the complete approval of himself. A first fiancée ran off with a hussar officer; he went abroad for three years, then became engaged to Clara Middleton, eighteen, daughter of an amateur scholar fond of wine. Clara soon understands what awaits her and asks him for her freedom, but he does not hear what he does not wish to hear. A neighbour, Laetitia Dale, loves him in silence, and a poor cousin, Vernon Whitford, lives under the same roof.
Context
The novel appeared in 1879, in three volumes; in it a young woman seeks to break off an engagement without her fiancé understanding why. Its principle had been set out two years earlier in a lecture given at the London Institution on 1 February 1877 and published in a periodical the same year, in which its author defended the comic spirit. This text is not part of the novel: the book opens with a prelude that takes up its idea, and the lecture appeared in volume form only in 1897, eighteen years after it.
Who it is for
About five hundred pages in the English edition; translated into French in 1904, then in 1924 by Yvonne Canque.
Prizes and reception
The novel brought its author his first real success with the public and the favour of the critics.
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