Rhoda Fleming — Volume 2

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

3.3

Word count: 176K words
Chapters: 18

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.Rhoda Fleming — Volume 2 by George MeredithAuthor: Meredith, George, 1828-1909,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 2003

Editor's review

Volume 2 of Rhoda Fleming continues Meredith's meticulous portrayal of Victorian domestic ethics and class distinctions. In this volume the plot gives greater weight to psychological turning points and moral dilemmas, and the narrative pace is tighter than in the first volume; the irony and sarcasm latent in the dialogue are hallmarks of Meredith's style. As a public-domain ebook, this volume is prepared and released by Project Gutenberg, with an accurate and easily searchable text, making it suitable as supplementary reading for courses in English literature or for comparative reading. It is best read in continuity with Volume 1, noting how the author uses everyday scenes to reflect the pressure social norms exert on individual choice. Readers accustomed to fast-paced modern narrative may need patience with his circuitous syntax and discursive interpolations, yet precisely these features constitute Meredith's distinctive observation of human complexity.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and researchers of Victorian English literature courses
Literature enthusiasts interested in Meredith's narrative style
Readers who need public-domain English texts for textual analysis or translation practice

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strongly plotted, fast-paced popular fiction
Beginners unaccustomed to nineteenth-century English long sentences and discursive prose

Reading tips

Read Volume 1 before this volume to keep track of characters and plot lines.
Mark the narrator's discursive interpolations as you go, then revisit these passages after finishing to see how they echo the plot.
Read alongside a Chinese translation or annotated edition to lower the barrier posed by long sentences and period background.

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

Can this book be read on its own?

Yes, but this is the second part of the three-volume Rhoda Fleming, and its characters and plot carry over from Volume 1. If read alone, it is advisable first to learn the main characters and conflicts of the previous volume; otherwise some turns will seem abrupt.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides a public-domain electronic text in English that is easy to search, copy, and use in class. This edition contains no modern scholarly notes or introduction; readers needing background should consult literary histories or research literature separately.

Is Meredith's style difficult to read?

His sentences are long and often interspersed with commentary and ironic remarks, which poses a challenge to readers used to modern English. Slow down, attend to the ironic tone in dialogue, and use notes or a translation for support.

Comments

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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.