Physical description

Hard cover book. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
Author: George Meredith
Publisher: Archibald Constable & Co Ltd
Date: 1909
Further Information: Red cloth hardcover with lettering and patterning to spine in gilt. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on spine with typed text PAT FIC MER
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service. Front loose end paper has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute. Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) was George Meredith's first full-length novel. Its subject is the relationship between a cruelly manipulative father and a son who loves a girl of a lower social class, with both men self-deluded and proud, and the story ending tragically. The story's theme is that Sir Austin Feverel, after his wife's departure, becomes a strict and misogynistic figure who imposes a rigid educational 'System' meant to raise the 'perfect' son, shielded from female influence, until Richard turns twenty-five. Richard nonetheless falls for Lucy Desborough, a farmer's niece, defying his father's plans, and the novel follows the fallout, including a scheme by Sir Austin's friend Lord Mountfalcon to have a courtesan seduce Richard, Richard's flight abroad, his return, a duel with Mountfalcon in which he is badly wounded, and Lucy's death after losing her mind from the shock. The novel was drawn from painful personal experience: in 1856, Meredith's wife Mary began an affair with the artist Henry Wallis and, having become pregnant by him, she left the following year, abandoning her young son, whom Meredith raised himself.