Beauchamp's Career — Complete

Meredith, George, 1828-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 1.1M words
Chapters: 110

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Beauchamp's Career — Complete by George Meredith. Author: Meredith, George, 1828-1909. Language: English. Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature. Release Date: Nov 4, 2004.

Editor's review

Beauchamp's Career — Complete is a full-length novel by George Meredith, centering on the title character's public ambitions and private attachments, with a marked interest in political and social observation. Meredith excels at depicting the collision between idealists and reality through irony and fine psychological portraiture; the novel's treatment of 19th-century English political life, class relations, and ideas about marriage and love gives it both narrative readability and value as a social document. As a complete Project Gutenberg ebook, it lets readers grasp the whole structure at once without worrying about broken volumes. Readers need to adjust to the narrator's discursive tone and long compound sentences, but once inside the network of relationships, they can appreciate Meredith's sustained scrutiny of the subtle line between ambition and self-conceit. Suitable for literature courses, reading groups, and close reading of public-domain classics.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers studying the relationship between Victorian politics and the novel
English-language enthusiasts who want to read Meredith's long work in full
Teachers and researchers who need a public-domain English novel for close textual analysis
Mature readers interested in the predicament of idealists in society

Not a good fit for

General genre-fiction readers expecting light entertainment and fast plotting
Beginners with weak English who find long sentences and discursive narration hard to handle
Readers who only want short stories or excerpts and are unwilling to invest time in a long novel

Reading tips

First map the main characters' relationships, then proceed chapter by chapter to avoid confusion.
Pay attention to the narrator's commenting tone on the protagonist's ambitions, and distinguish the author's attitude from the character's own statements.
Combine the reading with background on 19th-century British parliamentary politics and class to understand the roots of conflict.
After finishing, revisit the key turning-point chapters to check whether your understanding of the theme of ambition is complete.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this the complete edition or an abridged one?

The title says Complete, and it is a full-length novel, not an abridgment or a single leftover volume. Readers can go from chapter to chapter to the end and grasp the complete character arc and ending.

Is Beauchamp in the title a real historical figure?

It is the surname of the novel's protagonist, a fictional character, and the book is not biographical writing. Through his experiences the book discusses political ambition and social reality, and readers should not take it as a biography of a historical person.

Do I need to know British political history before reading?

Not systematically, but a basic background in 19th-century British parliamentary politics, party competition, and class attitudes will make it easier to understand the characters' motives and the narrator's satirical targets. It is best to read a brief introduction to the period first.

Does the Project Gutenberg edition have notes?

Project Gutenberg editions usually provide the public-domain text and generally do not include modern scholarly notes or introductions. When encountering historical figures, place names, and political terms, it is advisable to look them up yourself or read alongside an annotated edition.

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About the author

Meredith, George, 1828-1909 Author

George Meredith (1828–1909) was a nineteenth-century British novelist and poet, whose works are represented here by as many as 111 titles, indicating that his writing has continued to circulate among readers and researchers. His representative work, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, centers on a father-son relationship and examines the conflicts of pride and emotion in a young man's growth; The Egoist, subtitled “A Comedy in Narrative,” uses marriage and social situations to portray character weaknesses and self-reflection. His novels are often marked by witty dialogue, psychological insight, and an ironic tone, with plot and character relationships unfolding layer by layer. Public information is limited, and biographical details remain to be supplemented, but the existing bibliography shows that narrative novels and multi-volume series form the main body of his work, reflecting the Victorian novel's detailed exploration of individual morality and emotional life.