How did George Eliot respond to The Shaving of Shagpat?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

George Meredith George Meredith, detail of an oil painting by G.F. Watts, 1893; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

When George Meredith published his fantasy work The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment in 1855, it baffled many contemporary readers who were unsure whether to categorize it as a fairy tale or an allegory. However, the novelist George Eliot, recognized as one of the most perceptive critics of the time, praised the book as "a work of genius, and of poetical genius."1