Lecture by Dr. Conan Doyle (report 24 november 1893)
Lecture by Dr. Conan Doyle is an article published in the North British Daily Mail on 24 november 1893.
Report of a lecture about "George Meredith" given by Arthur Conan Doyle on 29 october 1893 at the Caledonian Road United Presbyterian Church (Liverpool, UK).
Report
Lecture by Dr. Conan Doyle. — Last night, in the Caledonian Road United Presbyterian Church, Dr A. Conan Doyle delivered a lecture under the auspices of the Young Men's and Young Women's Guilds. There was a crowded attendance, and the Rev. Mr Thomson presided. Dr Conan Doyle said that his agent had made a mistake in arranging for a lecture on the subject of "Facts about fiction," as the lecture which he had brought with him was one on the writings of George Meredith. But he had no doubt that if they were desirous to know facts about fiction, they would be willing to hear what he had to say of that great writer. In the course of his lecture Dr Conan Doyle gave numerous extracts to show the excellencies and some of the weaknesses of Meredith, and remarked that if he had lived in the days of Shakespeare he would probably have been a dramatist, and in the days of Addison an essayist, and that he had chosen fiction as the most popular kind of writing. "Richard Feveril," in Dr Doyle's judgement, was the most popular and most symmetrical of all Meredith's works, and it would in literature take its place with "Vanity Fair," "Esmond and the Cloister," and "The Hearth." But twenty years elapsed before that great book was called for. The style stood in the way of its success, though it was the style which was the crowning beauty of the work. As another characteristic of the great author, he mentioned that sparkling aphorisms to complete a new set of British proverbs might be taken from a single book of Meredith's. Finally, Dr Doyle pointed out that Meredith's women were totally different from those of Byron. Meredith's idea of woman was that she should be robust, healthy, and in all things on a level with man. If it was good for the man to drink wine at dinner it was good for the woman, and if it was bad for him it was also bad for her. The lecturer was cordially thanked.
