''Beauchamp's Career'' is an 1876 novel by

George Meredith George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. '' ...

which portrays life and love in upper-class

Radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

circles and satirises the Conservative establishment. Meredith himself thought it his best novel, and the character Renée de Croisnel was his favourite of his creations. '' The Penguin Companion to Literature'' calls it "One of the finest political novels in English."

Synopsis

Nevil Beauchamp is a young naval officer with high ideals of honour and public service who, having been wounded in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, recovers his health in Venice. He there falls in love with a brilliant and high-spirited French girl, Renée de Croisnel, with whom he hopes to elope. Renée marries an elderly French aristocrat instead, and Nevil takes up his naval career again. He falls under the influence of the republican and freethinking Dr. Shrapnel, thereby alienating his wealthy uncle Everard Romfrey, a staunchly Conservative peer. Nevil stands for Parliament as a

, but he is defeated. Everard horsewhips Dr. Shrapnel, and refuses when an outraged Nevil demands that he apologise. Renée now returns to claim Nevil, but he has meanwhile fallen in love with a beautiful Tory, Cecilia Halkett. Nevil reconciles Renée with her husband, but Cecilia refuses Nevil's proposal. With his love life in ruins Nevil falls ill and is thought to be at death's door. Uncle Everard repents of his quarrel with Nevil and Dr. Shrapnel, and apologises at last. On Nevil's recovery he marries Dr. Shrapnel's ward Jenny. The marriage is a happy one, in spite of Nevil's not being in love with her, but after a few months Nevil dies in an attempt to save a child from drowning.

Publication history

Meredith began work on ''Beauchamp's Career'' in 1871, and completed it in the spring of 1874. He submitted it to ''

The Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictionar ...

'', which rejected it, and then to ''

The Fortnightly Review ''The Fortnightly Review'' was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000 ...

'', which agreed to run it in a heavily condensed form. The ''Fortnightly'' serialized it between August 1874 and December 1875.

Chapman & Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

published ''Beauchamp's Career'' in 3 volumes at the end of 1875, though on the imprint the date was given as 1876.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

published it in their World's Classics series in 1950 with an introduction by G. M. Young, and again in 1988 edited by Margaret Harris.

Critical reception

Reviews of the novel were generally appreciative, while claiming that for many reasons it was unlikely to be a popular success. The poet James Thomson, writing in ''The Secularist'', complained ironically:

As if he were not sufficiently offensive in being original, he dares to be wayward and wilful, not theatrically or overweeningly like
Charles Reade Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for the 1861 historical novel '' The Cloister and the Hearth''. Life Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to John Reade and Anne Marie Sco ...
, but freakishly and humoristically, to the open-eyed disgust of our prim public.

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' said that Meredith did not have

the knack of stooping to the tastes of his readers…His books are over-charged with brilliancy of thought, and overdone with epigram and sarcasm and dry shrewd humour. It is often very difficult to follow his meaning in the coruscations of his roving fancy...He not only writes high over the head of the average reader, but he credits him with his own quickness of apprehension.

'' The Athenaeum'' noted that "he is anti-sensational to the last degree"; while according to '' The Examiner''

Mr. Meredith has an unpleasant way of suggesting that society at present exists under somewhat imperfect conditions, and that for these imperfect conditions the individual is largely responsible, because of his apathy and selfishness. It is, therefore, perhaps, scarcely to be wondered at that the bulk of novel readers, who only read to be amused, or to "kill time", as the phrase is, should be evilly disposed towards this brilliant writer who takes a keen pleasure in wielding his rapier, and hitting society deftly under the fifth rib.Ioan Williams (ed.) ''George Meredith: The Critical Heritage'' (London: Routledge, 1995) p. 170.

Notes

External links

Online edition
at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

PDF edition at Penn State Electronic Classics

"George Meredith's ''Beauchamp's Career'': Politics, Romance and Realism"
by Michael Wilding (PDF document) {{George Meredith British political novels 1875 British novels Works originally published in The Fortnightly Review Novels first published in serial form Novels by George Meredith Chapman & Hall books