George Meredith, The Adventures of Harry Richmond

Sue Zlosnik (Manchester Metropolitan University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1871

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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TheAdventures of Harry Richmond

(1871) is a

bildungsroman

told in first person narrative by its eponymous hero. In its early chapters, it has clear affinities with Dickens's

David Copperfield

and

GreatExpectations

; there are echoes particularly of

David Copperfield -

the pervasive London fog and the schooldays with a Steerforth figure, for example.

Unlike David, however, Harry is not rewarded by a home with its ‘Angel in the House'; instead, the novel ends with a burning of the ancestral home that echoes

Jane Eyre

and prefigures

Wide Sargasso Sea

and

Rebecca

, both classic Gothic texts by women. Thus the tale of the motherless young man achieving wisdom and maturity after being buffeted between the influences of his traditional English grandfather and his adventurer father like a…

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3633 words

Citation: Zlosnik, Sue. "The Adventures of Harry Richmond". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10362, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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