Complete Short Works of George Meredith

George Meredith made his name with dense, witty novels about the follies of the English upper classes, and this volume gathers the shorter fiction that shows the same intelligence at a smaller scale. Included here are comic tales such as ‘The Case of General Ople and Lady Camper’ and ‘The Tale of Chloe,’ along with ‘Farina,’ a mock-medieval romance set in old Cologne, and other pieces that mix social satire with a keen eye for human vanity. Meredith writes with a compression that rewards close reading; his characters betray themselves in a phrase, and his comedy carries a serious weight underneath. Readers who find his big novels daunting often meet him better here first. Available as a free PDF and EPUB edition.