Wit and the Egoist

Once could cite several reasons that George Meredith's novel, The Egoist, has passed the test of time so well. However, to be even remotely accurate, any such discussions must make mention of Meredith's wit. Meredith himself had more than a few thoughts on the subject of wit, and worked to apply them in his fiction. For Wit is the sophisticated city cousin of the country bumpkin, Simple Humor. Anyone can make a lavatory joke and solicit a few hoary old guffaws, but wit has truth to it, a certain intellectual observation. Wit is an incisive comment, delivered with excellent timing. In this essay, we will examine how Meredith applies his theories of the abstract concept of "wit," and so solicits our thunderous laughter.

Take, for instance, this passage from early in the novel:

Susceptible to beauty, he had never seen so beautiful a woman as Constantia Durham. Equally susceptible to the admiration of himself, he consider Laetitia Dale a paragon of cleverness. He stood between the queenly rose and the modest violet.

We learn much about Sir Willoughby here, but note how Meredith conveys it. He might just as easily have said, straight and to the point, that Willoughby is a superficial and arrogant jackass, and that his only conflict here is between lust and vanity.

Yet Meredith dances around this in his use of language, as a matador might toy with a bull. He relates the situation in an unornamented, matter-of-fact sort of way, saying only that Willoughby is "susceptible to beauty." He also avoids such charged terms as "hubris," "arrogance," and the like in favor of "susceptible to admiration of himself." Meredith is a guide, not a literary tyrant; he lets the reader slide the final keystone into place, creating a pleasant sense of discovery and amusement.