THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18924, 12 February 1927, Page 13

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

HALF HOURS IN A LIBRARY. (srrxiALLT written ro» the rßr.ss.) By A. H. Grinlisc. CC.'IV.OX AI'THOKS AXD MAKKIAGE (1): GEGKGE MEREDITH. The story of George Meredith's first and second marriages—the first as unhappy as tho second was harmonious — is told simply yet sympathetically by Mr J. H. Priestley in his monograph on Meredith recently added to the English Men of Letters series. Meredith had only just turned tweuty-ouo and he \y:\s living in London in lodgings in PYrury street. A set of youthful aspirants after literary' fame started a magazine in manuscript and culled it the ''Monthly Observer," using it as a medium for the private circulation of their efforts. Meredith secured insertion of his poem "Chillianwallah" in this magazine and in so doing made the acquaintance of Edward Gryffyd Peacock, sou of Thomas Love Peacock, who in his lifetime won fame as novelist and poet. Meredith was always n great walker and in his wnlks he was joined by Edward Peacock and afterwards by his sister, Mary Ellen Xicolls. the widow of n naval officer, a witty and beautiful woman of thirty. Mr B.' M. Ellis in his book on George Meredith tells the beginning of the friendship:—

It was ut Peacock's rooms, mar tho British Museum, that on one fatoful day Meredith was introduced to hit friend's ♦lister, Mary Ellen, tlio eldest daughter of Thomas Love Peacock. Sho was a brilliant, witty, beautiful woman, thirty years of Bgc, and a widow. Sho had married in 1*84» Edward Nico'ls, a lieutenant of tho Royal Navy, who commanded 11.M.5. Dwarf; he wan drowned at sea four months later, and tho posthumous child of tho maniage, Edith (subsequently Mr« Clarke) was born in the same year. Meredith was immediately attracted by Mrs Nirolls. and she by him, hut the mutual attraction was probably only of ft physical nature. Their personal qualities and temperaments and the story of their courtuhip and d-eastrous marriage much resem'iles the similar tragedy of Fulwor Lytton nnd Hosina Wheeler. Just as the latter declined Bulwer's proposals at first, three or four times according to his own account, so Mrs Nicolls refused Meredith six times. . . . If she hnd only persisted in her Tefusal both would have been saved from an immensity of grievous pain and torrow.

Despite the disparity in their ages, sho being nine years his senior, and in face of the fact that Meredith had no fixed income, they were married on August 9th. 1849 at St George's, Hanover square. London. Soon after the marriage the newly wedded couple had a trip on tho Continent on tho strength of a legncy left to Meredith by a relative in Portsmouth, but thev were back in London in November, when they lived for » while with Thomas Love Peacock at his house, 22 John street, Adelphi. During'their first years of married life husband and wife found a congenial occupation in their relative literary pursuits. TUey collaborated in publishing a cookery book a subject in which" thev were both interested, and to Fraser's Magazine for December, 1851 Mrs Meredith contributed an interesting article entitled "Gastronomy and Civilisation," in which she traced the historv of cookery from the earliest times. The article showed mots of such erudition as to su<rcest that Meredith himself had a hand in the writing. But Meredith for the most part was encaged in writing verse, and in the summer of 180 l he broueht out his first book of "Poems," which produced at his own expense, cost him sixty pounds which he could ill afford. %

Two Tears after the publication of th« "Poems" the Merediths left Weybridge, where they had been living with a Mrs Macirone, and went to Lower Hnlliford to slay with Mrs Meredith's father, and whose wife had died a year previously. Here their son Arthur was born in June, 1853, tho younger children having died in infancy. Peacock, an old Epicurean of sixty-eight, found an exuberant baby and a young counle given to disputations, sometimes of a violent nature, too much for his nervos, and tho Merediths moved over the way to Vine Cottage leaving tho old man to his wine and his Greek. "The marriage with tho daughter," writes Mr Priestley, "may have been n disaster to Meredith tho man, but the association with the father was undoubtedly a godsend to Meredith tho writer." Mr Priestley continues:—

The marriage was doomed from tho outset. It was not so much the difference in age ss the likeness in temperament that mndo it disastrous. Both husband and wifo were of the same kind, brilliant, ambitious, highly-strung, uncompromising, biltor-tongued, so that there was no point of rest between them, no possibility of give-and-take, no mutual adjustment of wills and nurposc. Tho conditions of their married life were not liko'y to make things easier, being a dreary sequence of duns, dead babies, lodgings, and baffled literary ambition. There wero frequent onarrcls nnd scenes, separations and reconciliations, until at last in 1856 Mrs Meredith left tho country with an artist nnmed 'Wsllis. Her boy Arthur remained with his father. In 1559 the returned to England, a sick, brooding, and sorrowful woman, aching for the child who had been taken away from her. living in lodgings at Twickenham, Hastings, Scaford, and Woyondge, where she died friendle«« in October. 1661. Meredith did not visit her during her last il'ncss, and did not attend br-r funercl. He was always reticent on the subject of their tragic marriage, merely remarking, ••\o sun warmed my roof tree; the martial was a blunder: she was nino years mv senior." and «ug 2 «ting that there wa, ™'taint of madness in the Peacock family.

There is a tendency to self-revelation in the make up of every true artist and Meredith was no exception to the rule Ho declined to discuss his first marriage, even with his most intimate friends? but as Mr Priestley points out "Meredith the poet opened his heart when Meredith the man had closed his lips, and there is in 'Modern Love written not long after the death of Mrs Meredith, not a little of his> P"vate historv. The tragedy compelled him to search his memory and mind and heart, and the result, of this self examination (with certain allowances for drama*) mav be found in this subtly introspective, almost "'Wort"""* noem." Three years before the death of his first wife Meredith hnd his first taste of fame with the publication of "Richard Fevercl," and in this r.s in other cf his earlier books the influence of that tragedv hinscd his views on women. Mr Ellis stresses this when he snv<: —

' The whole tragedy cf Meredith's first m»-riage was a (jrlevou* experience for Mirh nn acutely oensitlve and proud spirit. The iron entered into hi* fnul. Mid for «ome vcar« after he eschewed the love of women". Hi* attitude to the sex at thl« t : me i« expressed in » letter to a friend. Bonaparte Wyse. wherein he cmntirMlv m « c ri- that women In their phv«ical attri-b-ite« approximate to the vegetable creation, ind that morally they are no better than I'ic antiial: comennently in a chemical «en«e thev were beneficial to the other s »x He added that he respected .1 cood iinnv women. And did not hiic any, hut all iVe same he honed he would never fill in i ( ,'ve with one. In chapter sxii. of "Rich--rd Fcverel,". woman i» compared tu the veeetabte creation, and in another Passage (subsequently «npprc«««d la later cditloni) to s wild en*. In "Rhods Flerainis" also. eh»pter sxtitl., Edward Blancove Inveigh) artiatt the an!m»l njarlei of the sex.

Happilv, this caustic mood was only a passing phase with Meredith, to ue followed in a few years by a complete revolution of his views on women. brought about by a now and happier feminine inthieme. For the next s> x years, Meredith devoted himself to his son. Arthur, who was the idol of his life, the object upon whom lie showered all the wealth of his love. Indeed, the estrangement which gradually grew up between son and father was another exec Jinglv bitter experience for Meredith. He'had his tips and downs, and harti times, turning journalist, and 'wine appointed literarv adviser to Messrs Chapman and Hall, the publishers of his books, a position he oc-c-up: 1 for thirty-fire years, long after he had secured a front, rank place as an English .lovelist. It was durum (Lis period that he took rooms at 16 Cheyno Walk, Chelsea, in company with iSwinhtirtie and ltossetti, hut this oddlv assortud menage, about which much has l>ceii written, did not last Ion". Meredith's favourite abode was Copsliam Cottage in .Surrey, a delightful littles house by the roadside, surrounded by open country, heath, and common, covered with gorse and heather, and fringed with pine woods. Followinc a trip to France in August. 1963, iMsror'ith returned to Copsliam Cottaee. and while grappling w j«' "Emilia in England," a story which had civen him a good deal of trouble-, he made the acquaintance of a neighhour of Huguenot ."xtrawioii. a Mr Justin Theodore Vulliamy. and his three daughters.

To the youngest of these girls, Marie, aged twenty-four. Meredith was at once attracted. They met again during a visit to Norwich, where they did some "Cathedrnlising" together, when Meredith made up his mind that he had at last found his ideal helpmate. They travelled hack to London together, aiid a few weeks later the engagement was announced. His second marriage, destined to bo as happy as the first was miserable, took plnce in September, 1804, in Micklcham Church. Mr Ellis remarks:—

Hid marriage and departure from Copsham Cottage marks a distinct change in the lifo of Meredith. The first phase was now closed. It had been at times a lonoly ond perhaps a sad period. but it had been illuminated by. much good friendship and social plcasurp, by much Nature study and fine work. Tho now era of domestic happiness now opened auspiciously, with a consciousness of unabated literary power; but tho change in his lifo inevitably Involved one sad circumstance—tho estrangement of his son Arthur, now eleven yoark old. . . . Tho juvenile tragedy of an eldest child who has been for some years supreme and alone in his home, and is then superseded, is ever n bitter one; and in tho spocial circumstances of Arthur Meredith, who had been his father's sole relation and much noticed in the society of his father's adult friends, it is not surprising that tho boy was jealous and keenly resentful of his altered lifo and lost autocracy.

Meredith never was and never will bo a popular novelist, but his nearest approach to popularity was in 1885, when he published in three volumes "Diana of the Crussu uy.>,, ' which lia<i p.iviously appeared serially, in ' n .° fortnightly review. The reason of this popularity was because- of the scandal arisi..<r from the story being based on an episode in' the history of Mrs Caroline Norton, nnd scandal always helps to sell tt novel, or, indeed, any other book. "Tho tragic irony that seems to run all through Meredith's life,' says Mr Priestley, "made its appearj. -• again, for on top of this undoubted litorary success of his, there came crashing a hlow that left him indifferent to the praise and blame of critics and the patronage of library subscribers. In February, 1885, Mrs Meredith, who had not been well for s e time, was compelled to havo an operation. She was removed to Eastbourne, for a time, but made little progress, and finally came back to Box Hill in June, a dying woman, lingering on until the middle of September. She was buried in Dorking Cemetery."

T- assuage his ericf. Meredith found solace in poetrv. and in "Faith in Trial," "Change in Recurrence," and other pieces, he gave expression to his thoughts and feelings. Meredith died in May, 1909, and he was buried beside his wife in Dorking Cemetery in tho very heart of that beloved Surrey countryside, whose hills and woods and heath had given him the scene of so many stories and tho burden of so many songs. The poet's epitaph to M. (Marie Meredith) sufficiently espressos his idea of the future:

"Who call her Mother, and who calls her Wife, Look on her grave and seo not Death, but Life."