Celt and Saxon — Complete

"Celt and Saxon — Complete" by George Meredith is a novel written during the early 20th century. The story revolves around Patrick O'Donnell, a young Irish gentleman who travels to North Wales to visit Mr. Adister, a notable landowner, with the hope of obtaining the address of Miss Adiante Adister, his brother's lost love. The narrative explores themes of love, loyalty, cultural identity, and the contrasting worlds of the Celtic and Saxon heritages, all while delving deep into the psyche of its characters, especially Patrick. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to Patrick O'Donnell as he contemplates his journey and wrestles with his feelings about his family’s past and the Adister family. The opening chapters detail his reflections as he travels through an evocative Welsh landscape, triggering memories and thoughts about love and betrayal, particularly regarding Adiante and his brother Philip's unrequited love for her. Upon reaching the estate of Earlsfont, Patrick engages in conversation with Mr. Adister, which reveals underlying tensions around family dynamics and cultural prejudices. The opening sets the stage for a complex interplay of emotions and thoughts that Patrick and other characters will navigate as they confront their personal histories and desires. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first, his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but Meredith gradually established a reputation as a novelist. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859) briefly scandalised Victorian literary circles. Of his later novels, the most enduring is The Egoist (1879), though in his lifetime his greatest success was Diana of the Crossways (1885). His novels were innovative in their attention to characters' psychology, and also portrayed social change. His style, in both poetry and prose, was noted for its syntactic complexity; Oscar Wilde likened it to "chaos illumined by brilliant flashes of lightning". Meredith was an encourager of other novelists, as well as an influence on them; among those to benefit were Robert Louis Stevenson and George Gissing. Meredith was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.