The Works of George Meredith

London: Archibald Constable and Co., 1897-1907. Leather. Good Only. 7.5" by 5.5". Various. A fourteen volumes, uniformly bound set of 'The Works of George Meredith' with frontispiece illustrations to all volumes. George Meredith (1828 - 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. Fourteen volumes in total, some are revised editions, all of which have a plate to frontispiece. The set contains the following: Beauchamp's Career (1897) Diana of the Crossways (1897) Sandra Belloni (1897) Rhoda Fleming (1897) Vittoria (1897) The Adventures of Harry Richmond (1897) The Tragic Comedians (1897) The Amazing Marriage (1900) Evan Harrington (1901) Poems: Volume II (1902) One of Our Conquerors (1903) Lord Ormond and his Aminta (1903) The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1906) and Short Stories (1907). Meredith read law and was articled as a solicitor, but abandoned that profession for journalism and poetry. He collaborated with Edward Gryffydh Peacock, son of Thomas Love Peacock in publishing a privately circulated literary magazine, the Monthly Observer. He collected his early writings, first published in periodicals, into Poems, published to some acclaim in 1851. In 1856 he posed as the model for The Death of Chatterton, a hugely popular painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter Henry Wallis. Meredith supplemented his often uncertain writer's income with a job as a publisher's reader. His advice to Chapman and Hall made him influential in the world of letters. His friends in the literary world included, at different times, William and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Leslie Stephen, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Gissing and J. M. Barrie. Binder's stamps to verso of front free endpapers: 'Bound by Stikeman and co. for Charles Scribners Sons' Previous owner's bookplates to front pastedowns. In half morocco bindings with marbled paper covered boards. Externally, sound but with slight wear to extremities, slight loss to head and tail of spine to some volumes, odd slight marks to boards. Six boards detached, six held by cords only, two held by endpapers only, two starting, seven starting very slightly. Internally, firmly bound, some pages detached due to joints, most hinges are correspondingly strained, failed or tender. Generally bright but with slight marginal age toning to some volumes and odd handling marks, otherwise clean. Good Only