Full Description
In The Egoist, his comic masterpiece, George Meredith takes the traditional marriage plot of English domestic fiction and turns it on its head. The novel describes the repeated and disastrous courtships of Sir Willoughby Patterne, the egoist of the title. Three women become engaged to Sir Willoughby, but, despite his aristocratic arrogance and the manipulative power of his wealth, each is finally able to see him more clearly than he sees himself.
The introduction to this edition provides context for the novel from Meredith's own life, his theory of comedy, and his understanding of Darwinian thought. The appendices include reviews, other writing on comedy, and historical documents on women, sexual politics, and the theory of evolution.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
George Meredith: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Egoist: A Comedy in Narrative
Appendix A: Comedy
From Anonymous [Molière?], "Letter on The Imposter" (1667)
From George Meredith, "On the Idea of Comedy" (1877; 1898)
Appendix B: From George Meredith, Modern Love (1862)
Appendix C: The Egoist in Meredith's Letters (1879-1907)
Appendix D: Contemporary Reviews
From William Ernest Henley, Athenaeum (1 November 1879)
From Unsigned, Examiner (1 November 1879)
From James Thomson, Cope's Tobacco Plant (January 1880)
From Unsigned, New Quarterly Magazine (January 1880)
Appendix E: Feminine Conduct and Women's Education
From Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Daughters of England (1842)
From Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Wives of England (1843)
From Elizabeth Missing Sewell, Principles of Education (1865; 1866)
Appendix F: Harriet Taylor Mill and John Stuart Mill on Women's Liberties
From Harriet Taylor Mill, Enfranchisement of Women (July 1851)
From John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869)
Appendix G: Appendix G: From Mrs. Henry Wood, East Lynne (1861; 1862)
Appendix H: From Edward J. Thompson, Suttee, A Historical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow-Burning (1928)
Appendix I: Charles Darwin
From On the Origin of Species (1859)
From The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871; 1877)
Appendix J: From Virginia Woolf, "The Novels of George Meredith" (1932)
Select Bibliography
