Evan Harrington — Volume 4 — A Closer Reading

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In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: Meredith, George, 1828-1909 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2003 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: English fiction -- 19th century; Tailors -- Fiction Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 28,108

Reading time 123 min

Text sections 3

For Evan Harrington — Volume 4 — A Closer Reading, the stored edition analysis reports 28,108 words, 2 hr 3 min estimated reading time, and 3 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 14.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “English fiction -- 19th century,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #4430

In Volume 4 of Meredith's novel, the Countess's scheming despatch and Evan's moonlit reverie after a fall reveal shifts between comic intrigue and lyrical introspection, with narrative voice oscillating between sardonic commentary and romantic description.

Editorial Edition Score 4.5/5

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Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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There was nothing else for it but to go and speak. She is truly a noble woman--serves us in every way. As she should!--much affected by sight of Evan, and keeps aloof from Beckley Court. The finger of Providence is in all. Adieu! but do pray think of Miss Carrington! It was foolish of her to offend me. Drives and walks-the Duke attentive. Description of him when I embrace you. I give amiable Sir Franks Portuguese dishes. Ah, my dear, if we had none but men to contend against, and only women for our tools! But this is asking for the world, and nothing less.

'Open again,' she pursues. 'Dear Carry just come in. There are fairies, I think, where there are dukes! Where could it have come from? Could any human being have sent messengers post to London, ordered, and had it despatched here within this short time? You shall not be mystified! I do not think I even hinted; but the afternoon walk I had with his Grace, on the first day of his arrival, I did shadow it very delicately how much it was to be feared our poor Carry could not, that she dared not, betray her liege lord in an evening dress. Nothing more, upon my veracity! And Carry has this moment received the most beautiful green box, containing two of the most heavenly old lace shawls that you ever beheld. We divine it is to hide poor Carry's matrimonial blue mark! We know nothing. Will you imagine Carry is for not accepting it! Priority of birth does not imply superior wits, dear--no allusion to you. I have undertaken all. Arch looks, but nothing pointed. His Grace will understand the exquisite expression of feminine gratitude. It is so sweet to deal with true nobility. Carry has only to look as she always does. One sees Strike sitting on her. Her very pliability has rescued her from being utterly squashed long ere this! The man makes one vulgar. It would have been not the slightest use asking me to be a Christian had I wedded Strike. But think of the fairy presents! It has determined me not to be expelled by Mr. Forth--quite. Tell Silva he is not forgotten. But, my dear, between us alone, men are so selfish, that it is too evident they do not care for private conversations to turn upon a lady's husband: not to be risked, only now and then.

'I hear that the young ladies and the young gentlemen have been out riding a race. The poor little Bonner girl cannot ride, and she says to Carry that Rose wishes to break our brother's neck. The child hardly wishes that, but she is feelingless. If Evan could care for Miss Bonner, he might have B. C.! Oh, it is not so very long a shot, my dear. I am on the spot, remember. Old Mrs. Bonner is a most just-minded spirit. Juliana is a cripple, and her grandmother wishes to be sure that when she departs to her Lord the poor cripple may not be chased from this home of hers. Rose cannot calculate--Harry is in disgrace--there is really no knowing. This is how I have reckoned; L10,000 extra to Rose; perhaps L1000 or nothing to H.; all the rest of ready-money--a large sum-- no use guessing--to Lady Jocelyn; and B. C. to little Bonner--it is worth L40,000 Then she sells, or stops--permanent resident. It might be so soon, for I can see worthy Mrs. Bonner to be breaking visibly. But young men will not see with wiser eyes than their own. Here is Evan risking his neck for an indifferent--there's some word for "not soft." In short, Rose is the cold-blooded novice, as I have always said, the most selfish of the creatures on two legs.

'Adieu! Would you have dreamed that Major Nightmare's gallantry to his wife would have called forth a gallantry so truly touching and delicate? Can you not see Providence there? Out of Evil--the Catholics again!

'Address. If Lord Lax---'s half-brother. If wrong in noddle. This I know you will attend to scrupulously. Ridiculous words are sometimes the most expressive. Once more, may Heaven bless you all! I thought of you in church last Sunday.

'I may tell you this: young Mr. Laxley is here. He--but it was Evan's utter madness was the cause, and I have not ventured a word to him. He compelled Evan to assert his rank, and Mr. Forth's face has been one concentrated sneer since THEN. He must know the origin of the Cogglesbys, or something. Now you will understand the importance. I cannot be more explicit. Only--the man must go.

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Meredith opens Volume 4 with a chapter titled “Second Despatch of the Countess,” immediately establishing a tone of epistolary comedy. The Countess’s voice—brisk, conspiratorial, and laced with exclamation points—dominates the early pages. She writes of a lady who has “run away from the conjugal abode,” of scheming against the Jocelyns, and of her own theatrical self-regard. The narrative then pivots sharply: Chapter XX, “Break-Neck Leap,” shifts to Evan’s physical and emotional vulnerability after a fall. The prose becomes lyrical, describing the “red round harvest-moon” and the stream that “curved, and dimpled, and flowed flat.” This juxtaposition of the Countess’s manic plotting with Evan’s subdued, romantic melancholy is the volume’s defining structural device.

The Countess’s Epistolary Voice

The Countess’s despatch is a concentrated example of Meredith’s skill with indirect characterization. Her sentences are clipped and imperative: “Purely business. Great haste. Something has happened.” She refers to herself in the third person (“our General”) and employs military metaphors for social maneuvering. Her descriptions are pointedly physical: a lady’s hair is “worn as if her maid had given it one comb straight down and then rolled it up in a hurry round one finger.” The voice is simultaneously calculating and impulsive—she demands information about Captain Evremonde while also exclaiming over “poor beautiful uncomplaining Carry.” The narrative does not endorse her perspective; instead, it presents her as a comic figure whose energy is both resourceful and self-deluding.

Lyrical Interlude and Narrative Distance

After the Countess’s breathless prose, the narrative slows to a near-standstill when Evan gazes at the moonlit stream. Meredith writes that “the water curved, and dimpled, and flowed flat, and the whole body of it rushed into the spaces of sad splendour.” The language is deliberately heightened, with personification (“the clustered trees stood like temples of darkness”) and a rhythm that mimics the water’s flow. Yet the narrator immediately undercuts this romanticism with a wry aside: “Pardon me, I beg. Enamoured young men have these notions.” This shift in register—from lyrical immersion to ironic commentary—is a hallmark of Meredith’s narrative voice. The reader is allowed the emotional scene but then reminded of its artifice.

Silence and Unease in Dialogue

When the Countess ushers Juliana Bonner into Evan’s room, the dialogue becomes a study in awkwardness. Juliana’s “restless brilliant eyes” and “contraction about the forehead” suggest perpetual headache, and her speech is minimal. She laughs “unmusically” and makes cryptic remarks: “You won’t be dismissed from your present service till you’re unfit for any other.” Evan, hoping for Rose, is visibly disappointed. The scene relies on what is not said: the silence “made silence too expressive.” Meredith uses physical detail—Juliana’s intertwining fingers, Evan’s gaze toward the window—to convey emotional undercurrents. The pacing here is deliberate, contrasting with the Countess’s earlier verbosity and the lyrical flow of the moonlit passage.

Readers attentive to voice will note how Meredith uses the Countess’s despatch as a foil for Evan’s interiority. The volume’s three chapters—each with a distinct tempo—reward attention to shifts in register. The handkerchief that Evan risks his neck for becomes a symbol of longing, but the narrator’s ironic asides prevent sentimentality. Approach these pages as a study in narrative modulation rather than plot advancement.

Reading Evan Harrington — Volume 4, I found myself lingering on that moonlit fall—the way Meredith lets his characters stumble, then suddenly writes as if from inside their quietest thoughts. It reminded me, oddly, of how the vultures circle their own kind of schemes, but with human warmth beneath the shadow. That tension stays with me, like a half-remembered tune. The Vultures — Key Ideas to Explore holds a similar ache.