The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

Meredith's 1859 novel about a troubled father-son relationship has a hero with whom it is impossible for the reader to identify. Meredith believed that a novel's complexity of style should mirror the complexity of its protagonist's mind, and used several layers of ironic commentary in the telling of his story, a deliberate departure from the traditional conventions of the Victorian novel which demanded a shared set of conservative middle-class values. Meredith believed that the workings of nature were more important than the influences of society in the formation of character.