. George Meredith; his life and friends in relation to his work. ton, when in the course of a month hewrote 250 pages. IMeanwhile Vittoria came to the*fore, and in January, 1865, the harassed authorat The Cedars, Esher, put aside Vittoria in orderto try and complete Rhoda Fleming. On 24thApril, 1865, writing from Kingston, he was able toinform Jessopp that Rhoda Fleming was just com-pleted except the last two chapters. He added thatthe novel represented six months labour, and thathe had received an oiler of £400 for it from Tinsley,whereas Chapman and Hall could not entertain theidea of the wo
. George Meredith; his life and friends in relation to his work. ton, when in the course of a month hewrote 250 pages. IMeanwhile Vittoria came to the*fore, and in January, 1865, the harassed authorat The Cedars, Esher, put aside Vittoria in orderto try and complete Rhoda Fleming. On 24thApril, 1865, writing from Kingston, he was able toinform Jessopp that Rhoda Fleming was just com-pleted except the last two chapters. He added thatthe novel represented six months labour, and thathe had received an oiler of £400 for it from Tinsley,whereas Chapman and Hall could not entertain theidea of the work before November. It is not clear why Chapman and Hall wanted towait seven months before securing one of Meredithsmost readable works in view of the fact that theyhad already published four of his books, bringingfame to the firm if not large monetary returns atthe time. But Meredith could not wait, and so heaccepted Tinsleys rather poor offer, and it was fromthe house in Catherine Street that the novel issuedin this year (1865). William Tinsley relates that. Kingston Lodge, Norbiton. Heke Meredith lived 1865-1S67 AND WROTE RHODA FLEMING ANli \lTrORIA. TlIEBATTLEMENTED WING IS A MODERN ADDITION TO THE RHODA FLEMING 185 it had a very poor sale, and there were appar-ently no contemporary reviews of any note. It wasnot until twenty years later that W. E. Henleysable criticism of the book appeared in The Athenaeum,wherein he advanced the opinion that of passiondeeply felt and poignantly expressed there is sucha. feast in Rhoda Fleming as no other Englishnovehst alive has spread. William Watson, in hisFiction—Plethoric and Ancemic, regarded the workas an ill-constructed and very unequally writtenstory, having some fine scenes and clever, if equallyunattractive, character studies, On the otherhand again, Arthur Symons judged Rhoda Flemingto be Merediths chef dceuvre in tragedy and said the plot is woven with singular closeness and deftintricacy, The partial and enthusiasti
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