Why did many early readers find The Shaving of Shagpat difficult to understand?

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

Many early readers found George Meredith’s 1855 fantasy, The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment, difficult to understand because of its unique composition. While the work was original in its conception, it imitated the manner of The Arabian Nights, leaving readers confused as to whether they should interpret the text as an allegory or a fairy tale. Despite this initial bafflement, the novelist George Eliot recognized the work as one of genius.1