The Egoist

Sir Willoughby Patterne, rich, fashionable and fatuous, is The Egoist. He pursues three women, each more discerning than he, with little thought for anything but the fulfilment of his own desires and the gratification of his own vanity that will come from a prestigious marriage. Clara Middleton is one of the three, but she will not be dominated by a man and is determined to assert her own value and values. Meredith’s aim was to create a comedy, and there is indeed much to laugh at in this superbly comic tale. Yet with an impressive variety of skills, he satirizes many of the assumptions that prevailed in his time and raises issues of profound and enduring relevance.