The Shaving of Shagpat

George Meredith’s first book, published in 1856, is a comic fantasy dressed in the manner of the Arabian Nights. A down-on-his-luck barber named Shibli Bagarag is drawn by the sorceress Noorna into a strange destiny: to shave Shagpat, a clothier whose enchanted head of hair holds a whole city under its spell. The quest sends him after a magic sword, through illusions and shape-shifting sorcery, and up against the vain, monstrous Shagpat himself. Meredith piles on invented legend, mock-heroic bombast, and sly humor, so the tale reads as both an adventure and a gentle joke about pride and self-importance. Available here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.