Although George Meredith's literary reputation has diminished somewhat since his death in 1909, he is still regarded as a major writer of the Victorian period. But besides producing fifteen novels, numerous pieces of short fiction, and several volumes of poetry, he also worked as a journalist during his career. He contributed articles on a wide range of subjects to some of the leading newspapers and journals of his time, and for a short period he served as the editor of the Fortnightly Review in addition to working as a manuscript reader and literary adviser for two publishing firms. Meredith's nonfiction prose writing also includes a famous essay on the nature of comedy.

Born in Portsmouth, England, on 12 February 1828, George Meredith was the only child of Augustus Meredith, a tailor, and Jane Macnamara Meredith, the daughter of a middle-class innkeeper. Meredith's mother died when he was five; and in 1838 Augustus...