The Works in 53 volumes

A collection of FIRST EDITIONS of all novels and most of the poetry by George Meredith, with original boards preserved in rear, very occasional light foxing, finely bound by Riviere & sons in blue morocco, boards triple ruled in gilt, title gilt to spine, raised bands, compartments and turn-ins richly gilt with floral motifs, t.e.g., marbled endpapers, 8vo, London, [1851-1910]

The collection comprises:

Poems, First Ed, 8vo, Parker, 1851;

The Shaving of Shagpat, First ed., Chapman and Hall, 1856;

Farina; A Legend of Cologne, First Ed., 8vo, Smith, Elder and co., 1857;

The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, 3 vol., First Ed., 8vo, Chapman and Hall, 1859;

Evan Harrington, 3 vol., First Ed., 8vo, London, Bradbury and Evans, 1861;

Modern Love, First Ed., presentation copy, title head signed by author to poet Alfred Austin, bookplate of Alfred Austin in paste down, 8vo, original cloth, a fine copy, preserved in full morocco slip-case to same style as set, Chapman and Hall, 1862;

Emilia in England, 3 vol., First Ed., Chapman and Hall, 1864;

Roda Fleming, 3 vol., First ed., 8vo, Tinsley Brothers, 1865;

Vittoria, 3 vol. First Ed, 8vo, London, Chapman and Hall, 1867;

The Adventures of Harry Richmond, 3 vol., First Ed., 8vo, Smith, Elder and Co., 1871;

Beauchamp’s Career, 3 vol., First Ed., 8vo, London, Chapman and Hall, 1876;

The Egoist A Comedy in Narrative, 3 vol., First Ed., 8vo, London, C. Kagan Paul, 1879;

The Tragic Comedians, 2 vol., First Ed., Chapman and Hall, 1880;

Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth, First Ed., 8vo, Macmillan and co., 1883;

Diana of the Crossways, 3 vol., First Ed, 8vo, London, Chapman and Hall, 1885;

Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life, First Ed., 8vo, Macmillan, 1887;

A Reading of Earth, First Ed., 8vo, Macmillan, 1888;

One of Our Conquerors, 3 vol., First Ed., 8v0, London, Chapman and Hall, 1891;

Jump to Glory, First Ed., one of 1000 copies, 40 illustrations by Lawrence Housman, original gilt vellum boards bound in, 8vo, Swan and Sonnenschein, 1892;

Poems: The Empty Purse with Odes to the Comic Spirit to Youth in Memory and Verses, First, Ed, 8vo, Macmillan, 1892;

The Tale of Chloe – The House of the Beach – The Case of General Ople and Lady Camper, 8vo, Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1894;

Lord Ormont and His Aminta, 3 vol., First Ed., 8vo, London, Chapman and Hall, 1894;

The Amazing Marriage, 2 Vol., First Ed., vol two top board detached, Constable, 1895;

Selected Poems, First Ed, 8vo, London, Constable, 1897;

An Essay on Comedy, first published in ‘The New Quarterly Magazine’, 1877, First book edition, 8vo, Constable, 1897;

Odes in Contribution to the Song of French History, First Ed, 8vo, London, Constable, 1898;

The Nature Poems, First Ed., no 304 of 375, 20 full page photogravures by William Hyde, 4to, Constable, 1898;

Last Poems, First Ed., 8vo, Constable, 1909;

Celt and Saxon, First Ed., 8vo, London, Constable, 1910.

George Meredith was an important Victorian poet and novelist whose career developed in conjunction with an era of great change in English literature during the second half of the 19th century. While his early novels largely conformed to Victorian literary conventions, his later novels were more concerned with character psychology rather than plot. In particular, Meredith is noted as one of the earliest English psychological novelists. He experiments with narratives told from a variety of shifting, unreliable perspectives, reflecting the uncertain nature of both personal motivation and of social or historical events.

His shorter fiction appeared toward the beginning of his career, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and reached its fullest development in three stories published in the 1870s in the New Quarterly Magazine. Meredith lived most of his life during the time Queen Victoria ruled England and its territories. This period saw significant changes for both Britain and Europe as a whole, with advances in industrialisation leading much of the population to jobs in factories instead of on the farms as in the past. Meredith’s treatment of issues such as shifting social class and rapidly developing industrialisation established him as a heavy influence on the early modernist writers that would follow him.