THE LATE GEORGE MEREDITH

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 121, 20 May 1909, Page 5

THE LATE GEORGE MEREDITH

AN APPRECIATION. [from otje correspondent.] V WELLINGTON, Wednesday. So George Meredith is dead. The i end could not have been unexpected, ; for last year when the famous novelI ist celebrated his 80th birthday^ he i was in notoriously a'weak condition. | '' It was on this occasion that he was. ; presented with a congratulatory ad- : dress signed by a large .number of | prominent men of letiers. 'After ' Thackeray and Dickens-^-his devotees ; hold he should rank before both those? two famous Victorians—Meredith was ■. head and shoulders over any other novelist of his period. Fbr'analysis of character, for keen satire, for a humour ' which was always refined, and for portraits of some of the sweetest heroines ever depicted in British fiction, Meredith must ever have a high reputation. It is a pity that, especially ,of laic years, he is too often obscure, indeed one might call him the, 'Browning' of fiction." But it is hard to find finer novels than "The' Ordeal of Richard Fey- . erel" and thatt splendid Italian story, .' "Sandra Belloni.'' His poems are, 1 • confess, somewhat beyond me, although there are many beautiful lines ; and noble' thoughts in his "Modern 1 Love."

He was an ardent Radical all his life, a keen sympathiser'with all .oppressed peoples, such as the Poles, the Hungarians, and the Italians—as the latter were under the- iron despotism of Austria. In 1866 he acted as war correspondent in Northern Italy, and at one time edited the Fortnightly Review. Probably no literary man has been so much esteemed'—l might almost say beloved-— by fellows of his, craft. He has been called "the novelists' novelist, >; and men like Thackeray, Browning and Tennyson have cordially recognised and warmly praised his wonderful gifts. He has never been popular with the less educated and cultured; — the majority of the reading public, to whom stories like "Diana of thfc Crossways" and "The Egoist" areas "caviare to the million," but he had his own public, and a very faithful and enthusiastic public it was. He lived in a delightful little spot in Surrey, Boxhill, near Dorking,, and 1ed,..0f late-years at least, the:life'^of; a recluse.* He is the* last of the Victorian literary giants and one may* look m vaiii amidst the eyer-increas-ing crowd of latter-day writers to find; anyone, fit to be even considered worthy of; discussion as a possible compeer. ' ■