The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

George Meredith

Penguin, Jun 1, 1999 - Fiction - 560 pages

"Of all nineteenth-century English novels, " claims Edward Mendelson in his Introduction to this edition, "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel is the most self-consciously literary in its style and structure and the most sexually explicit in its plot and theme." First published in 1859, Meredith's first and most controversial novel concerns Sir Austin Feverel's misconceived attempts to educate his son Richard according to a system of his own devising -- a system based on theories of sexual restraint. Exploring generational and gender conflicts, the psychology of sexual jealousy and repression, and myths of Eden and Utopia, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel shocked Victorian readers but gained for itself a cult following. "Now that it has been freed from its reputation, " writes Mendelson, "readers can discover again the tragic and ironic force, and the psychological and formal complexity that make The Ordeal of Richard Feverel one of the most profound, subtle, and moving works of English fiction."

Contents

• Clares Marriage: 355
• A Dinner Party at Richmond: 369
• Mrs Berry on Matrimony: 384
• An Enchantress: 394
• The Little Bird and the Falcon A Berry to the Rescue: 416
• Clares Diary: 432
• Austin Returns: 447
• Nature Speaks: 457
• Again the Magian Conflict: 465
• The Last Scene: 473
• Lady Blandish to Austin Wentworth: 489
• NOTES: 493

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
• Author: George Meredith
• Editor: Edward Mendelson
• Publisher: Penguin, 1999
• ISBN: 1101199776, 9781101199770
• Length: 560 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Fiction / Psychological