George Meredith, The Egoist

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 1879

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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George Meredith's 1879 novel

The Egoist

is one of the major comic novels in the language. In telling the story of Clara Middleton's struggle to extricate herself from her engagement to Sir Willoughby Patterne, the novel

presents an ironic subversion of texts that had shaped the pattern of Victorian femininity. Clearly situated as an apparently realist novel in an English country house, this ‘Gothic romance' (as Judith Wilt calls it)

embodies in its language the monstrosity of an unequal relationship between man and woman as endorsed by the prevailing attitudes of the time. Clara has been pressured into an engagement with the eligible Sir Willoughby and the dynamic of the novel is carried by her dawning realisation of what marriage to him would mean and her increasingly urgent attempts…

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2461 words

Citation: Zlosnik, Sue. "The Egoist". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=986, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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