The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

cover imageThe Ordeal of Richard Feverel  (subtitled “A History of Father and Son”) is the earliest full-length novel by George Meredith, published in 1859.

Sir Austin Feverel’s wife deserts him to run away with a poet, leaving her husband to bring up their boy Richard. Believing schools to be corrupt, Sir Austin, a scientific humanist, educates the boy at home with a plan of his own devising.

Arthur Linfoot wrote that his comrade, Harvey, had lent him “Richard Feverel” on 20 August 1918, while stationed at Choques, midway between Lillers and Béthune in Northern France. He continued to read the book in the following days.