How did George Meredith’s family background in tailoring affect the subjects of his novels?

George Meredith’s family background as the son and grandson of tailors significantly influenced his literary work, most notably in his 1860 novel Evan Harrington.12

In this work, Meredith used his own family history and the tailoring establishment as primary subject matter. The novel’s protagonist is the son of a tailor who has been raised abroad as a gentleman, only to face an "ordeal" when he returns home to discover his father has died, leaving him as the heir to both the tailor shop and a substantial debt.2

While Meredith was sometimes accused of being a snob or ashamed of his humble origins due to his focus on upper-class life in his other novels, critics note that he chose the fashionable world primarily because it provided the most suitable setting for his specific brand of comic treatment. Ultimately, writing Evan Harrington served as a creative outlet that helped him "exorcise the tailor demon" that had haunted him throughout his early life.32