More on Meredith

The first collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry was published in 1890.  Author G. E. Meredith wrote a poem in response to his first reading of the book, and his work was published in the April 1891 issue “The Literary World.  Two days ago I discussed his poem, HERE, and yesterday, HERE, I shared some odd bits of trivia about Meredith.  I have a handful more of unusual facts for today. 

PLEASE NOTE:  I HAVE POSTED UPDATED INFO HERE. THE POEM IN QUESTION WAS ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY GERTRUDE EUPHEMIA MEREDITH, NOT GEORGE MEREDITH.:  
 
Yesterday’s post ended with info about James Watson Gieve, who had been an employee for Meredith’s father’s company and who was one of the founders of Gieves & Hawkes, a tailoring company founded in 1771 and still in operation today at 1 Savile Row in London.  Their site is HERE. 

So one last thing to share about Gieves and Hawkes:  it has a strong history of service to the military and to the British royal family, and they were granted their first Royal Warrant in 1809, during the reign of King George III – you know, the King of England during the American Revolution and the very dude who is featured in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.”

Back to Meredith:  In August 1842 he was sent to the Moravian School in Neuwied, a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where he remained until the spring of 1844; Lionel Stevenson, Meredith’s biographer, argued that the experience instilled his "impatience towards sham and servility, contempt for conceit, admiration for courage, and devotion to candid and rational forthrightness.”

I found that statement interesting, because it seemed to encapsulate the various aspects of Dickinson Meredith would have admired.  In his tribute to Dickinson, he did refer to her as “This witness of reality” (line 11), and he indicated that after his interaction with her work, “I can live more” (line 12).

Another tidbit about Meredith I found to be surprising is that he served as the model for artist Henry Wallis’ painting “The Death of Chatterton” – and this story gets a bit weird.  Meredith’s wife Mary grew close with the painter, and they became lovers.  Turns out Mary became pregnant with Wallis, and she gave birth to a son, Harold, who was later known as Felix Wallis. The relationship with Wallis however did not last, and though I did not read of any divorce from Meredith, around 1861 or so, she died of kidney failure.

Meredith’s contemporary Sir Arthur Conan Doyle paid tribute to him in the short story "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", in which Sherlock Holmes says to Dr. Watson, "And now let us talk about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all minor matters until to-morrow." 

Oscar Wilde, though, in "The Art of Novel-Writing,” wrote, "Ah, Meredith! Who can define him? ... As a writer he has mastered everything, except language ... Too strange to be popular, too individual to have imitators, ... [he] stands absolutely alone."   I’d mentioned yesterday that Wilde characterized Meredith’s writing as “chaos.”

As a matter of fact, in the “Literary Style” section of the Wikipedia article, it states, “His prose, aphoristic and allusive, has often been seen as a barrier to comprehension, with some critics arguing that the style, rather than being a means to an end, serves as an end in itself...A recurring objection is the mental effort required to decipher his meaning.” 

​Interestingly – in line with that comment – my discussion of Meredith’s tribute to Dickinson ended with, “Although the final two lines provide a bit of interest for contemplation and discussion, the bulk of the poem seems awkwardly simple, unsophisticated and confusing.”
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If you’re interested in reading other poems by Meredith, click HERE.

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PLEASE NOTE:  I HAVE POSTED UPDATED INFO HERE. THE POEM IN QUESTION WAS ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY GERTRUDE EUPHEMIA MEREDITH, NOT GEORGE MEREDITH.