The Egoist

George Meredith

Virginia Woolf said of The Egoist: 'Meredith pays us a supreme compliment to which as novel-readers we are little accustomed ... He imagines us capable of disinterested curiosity in the behaviour of our kind.' In this, the most dazzlingly intellectual of all his novels, Meredith tries to illuminate the pretensions of the most powerful class within the very citadel of security which its members have built. He develops to their logical extremity his ideas on egoism, on sentimentality and on the power of comedy. Meredith saw egoism as the great enemy of truth, feeling and progress, and comedy as the great dissolver of artifice. The Egoist is the extreme expression of his recurrent theme: the defeat of egoism by the power of comedy.

Table of contents

• Prelude
• Chapter 1. A Minor Incident Showing An Hereditary Aptitude In The Use Of The Knife
• Chapter 2. The Young Sir Willoughby
• Chapter 3. Constantia Durham
• Chapter 4. Laetitia Dale
• Chapter 5. Clara Middleton
• Chapter 6. His Courtship
• Chapter 7. The Betrothed
• Chapter 8. A Run With The Truant; A Walk With The Master
• Chapter 9. Clara And Laetitia Meet: They Are Compared
• Chapter 10. In Which Sir Willoughby Chances To Supply The Title For Himself
• Chapter 11. The Double-Blossom Wild Cherry-Tree
• Chapter 12. Miss Middleton And Mr. Vernon Whitford
• Chapter 13. The First Effort After Freedom
• Chapter 14. Sir Willoughby And Laetitia
• Chapter 15. The Petition For A Release
• Chapter 16. Clara And Laetitia
• Chapter 17. The Porcelain Vase
• Chapter 18. Colonel De Craye
• Chapter 19. Colonel De Craye And Clara Middleton
• Chapter 20. An Aged And A Great Wine
• Chapter 21. Clara's Meditations
• Chapter 22. The Ride
• Chapter 23. Treats Of The Union Of Temper And Policy
• Chapter 24. Contains An Instance Of The Generosity Of Willoughby
• Chapter 25. The Flight In Wild Weather
• Chapter 26. Vernon In Pursuit
• Chapter 27. At The Railway Station
• Chapter 28. The Return
• Chapter 29. In Which The Sensitiveness Of Sir Willoughby Is Explained: And He Receives Much Instruction
• Chapter 30. Treating Of The Dinner-Party At Mrs. Mountstuart Jenkinson's
• Chapter 31. Sir Willoughby Attempts And Achieves Pathos
• Chapter 32. Laetitia Dale Discovers A Spiritual Change And Dr Middleton A Physical
• Chapter 33. In Which The Comic Muse Has An Eye On Two Good Souls
• Chapter 34. Mrs. Mountstuart And Sir Willoughby
• Chapter 35. Miss Middleton And Mrs. Mountstuart
• Chapter 36. Animated Conversation At A Luncheon-Table
• Chapter 37. Contains Clever Fencing And Intimations Of The Need For It
• Chapter 38. In Which We Take A Step To The Centre Of Egoism
• Chapter 39. In The Heart Of The Egoist
• Chapter 40. Midnight: Sir Willoughby And Laetitia: With Young Crossjay Under A Coverlet
• Chapter 41. The Rev. Dr. Middleton, Clara, And Sir Willoughby
• Chapter 42. Shows The Divining Arts Of A Perceptive Mind
• Chapter 43. In Which Sir Willoughby Is Led To Think That The Elements Have Conspired Against Him
• Chapter 44. Dr Middleton: The Ladies Eleanor And Isabel: And Mr. Dale
• Chapter 45. The Patterne Ladies: Mr. Dale: Lady Busshe And Lady Culmer: With Mrs. Mountstuart Jenkinson
• Chapter 46. The Scene Of Sir Willoughby's Generalship
• Chapter 47. Sir Willoughby And His Friend Horace De Craye
• Chapter 48. The Lovers
• Chapter 49. Laetitia And Sir Willoughby
• Chapter 50. Upon Which The Curtain Falls