Meredith's poetry is neither ravishing nor comely. When we read
it in bulk- the clearest emotion that it rouses is a sort of dismal exasperation. Yet there is more than mere intellectual twisting in his verse : there are spurts of eloquence and sometimes there is even a new and original, genuinely iitiprising-justtress-of-phrtiSe'!•-alifitltrbdith,--trying-ti5 form .a syntax of his own and hoist the English .language to a new ,plane of expression, had suddenly found himself at honr. There is always:, inaddition, the interest of his mentallabour, and any reader who can accustom himself to • Meredith's -literary bad manners, will find him a storehouse of thought, and even of teChnical suggestions. There is thus a real place for Mr. G. M. Trevelyan's complete edition of The Poetical Works of George Meredith (Constable, 8s. 6d.). The
• few notes which the editor adds are made unusually valuable by the fact that they are based on conversations with the 'poet himself. * * * *
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