PREFACE.
A couple of months ago I was asked to give a lecture in Paris on a modern English writer, and I naturally selected my favourite, the subject of this little book. It was afterwards suggested to me that the lecture would bear expansion, a task I the more readily undertook because I was happy enough to learn that my humble effort had sent at least three intellectual foreigners to the fountainhead to study for themselves the novels of Mr. Meredith, curious to see if I had not overrated his merits, as is the habit of enthusiastic disciples, and greatly astonished to find their expectations disappointed, and my estimate unexaggerated.
While still engaged upon this work I received from London Mr. Le Gallienne’s book, ‘George Meredith,’ and not having by me copies of ‘Modern Love’ or the other poems of Mr. Meredith, I availed myself of his quotations of the famous sonnet and ‘A Meeting.’ I have also taken from Mr. Lane’s Bibliography, added to Mr. Le Gallienne’s book, the dates of the appearance of each of the novels, as my own copies all belong to the recent uniform editions published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall.
HANNAH LYNCH.