The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

The Ordeal of Richard Fevrel is apparently the most famous of George Meredith's novels. Born 10-20 years after Trollope, Dickens, Thackerey I thought this book might be just as accessible, but there is a reason why you seldom see it in bookstores.

I found it obtuse, meandering, full of a humour long past its use-by date (the forward says the first 2/3 of the book is funny, so perhaps it must have been, in its day) and with so many ornamental flourishes it feels like a Louis XVI chair. Only a bedbound and bored person would persevere with it ...but actually it was even too much for this bedbound person and I skipped a good deal of the end part.

The picture of the front is pretty though.

I  must have kept it on my shelf because I thought I should give it some real time. Well I have done that now and it is now bound for the op shop.