Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Diana of the Crossways is a novel by George Meredith which was published in 1885, based on the life of socialite and writer Caroline Norton.
Diana of the Crossways is a novel by George Meredith which was published in 1885, based on the life of socialite and writer Caroline Norton.
Diana of the Crossways was first serialized in the Fortnightly in 1884, then published as a book the following year. [1] The book was Meredith's first popular novel; at least three editions of Diana of the Crossways would come out in 1885, and for many years it remained Meredith's most popular work. [2] The book's popularity has been attributed in part to the boost in recognition that 1879's The Egoist gave Meredith, but also its roots in a high society scandal. [3]
Meredith based the titular character of Diana on socialite, poet and novelist Caroline Norton, with whom he was acquainted, and the politics of the story on the troubled history of Robert Peel's administration and the 1845 Corn Laws. Norton had been accused of selling to The Times the news, allegedly told to her by admirer Sidney Herbert, of Peel's intent to repeal the laws. The story was later proven false, but its prominence in Meredith's fictionalized story drew significant credence to the claim. [4] Beginning with the 1890 edition, Meredith added a disclaimer to the preface of the book that "the story of Diana of the Crossways is to be read as fiction." [2]
Diana of the Crossways has been described as a feminist novel, and contemporary writers have drawn additional parallels between Diana's marriage and Meredith's similarly troubled marriage to his first wife Mary Ellen, the dissolution of which had deeply troubled him for several decades. [5] Critic Richard Cronin argues that Meredith's choice to make Diana childless -- unlike Norton, whose political activism over losing custody of her sons famously led Parliament to pass several reforms concerning married women's rights -- stemmed from a desire to "avoid reflecting on the similarities between [George Norton's behavior] and his own behavior toward Mary Ellen." [1]
Diana Warwick, beautiful, charming and intelligent but hotheaded, becomes embroiled in a political as well as a social scandal. She says: "We women are the verbs passive of the alliance, we have to learn, and if we take to activity, with the best intentions, we conjugate a frightful disturbance. We are to run on lines, like the steam-trains, or we come to no station, dash to fragments. I have the misfortune to know I was born an active. I take my chance." Her efforts to advance her husband, through cultivating a friendship with Cabinet Minister Lord Dannisburgh, lead to scandal and alienation from her husband, Augustus Warwick. Her intention to live "independently" through writing is initially successful, but her involvement in politics brings her to grief, both personal and public.
In 1922 the novel was adapted into a film Diana of the Crossways directed by Denison Clift and starring Fay Compton and Henry Victor.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.
Elizabeth Woodville, later known as Dame Elizabeth Grey, was Queen of England from her marriage to King Edward IV on 1 May 1464 until Edward was deposed on 3 October 1470, and again from Edward's resumption of the throne on 11 April 1471 until his death on 9 April 1483. She was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic civil war between the Lancastrian and the Yorkist factions between 1455 and 1487.
Jane Eyre is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.
Lady Caroline Lamb was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for Glenarvon, a Gothic novel. In 1812, she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Her husband was the Honourable William Lamb, who after her death became 2nd Viscount Melbourne and British prime minister.
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily during the Victorian or Edwardian period. Cartland is one of the best-selling authors worldwide of the 20th century.
Jacquetta of Luxembourg was a prominent, though often overlooked, figure in the Wars of the Roses. Through her short-lived first marriage to the Duke of Bedford, brother of King Henry V, she was firmly allied to the House of Lancaster. However, following the emphatic Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton, she and her second husband Richard Woodville sided closely with the House of York. Three years after the battle and the accession of Edward IV of England, Jacquetta's eldest daughter Elizabeth Woodville married him and became queen consort of England. Jacquetta bore Woodville 14 children and stood trial on charges of witchcraft, of which she was exonerated.
William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire,, was a British nobleman, aristocrat, and politician. He was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, by his wife, the heiress Lady Charlotte Boyle, suo jure Baroness Clifford, who brought in considerable money and estates to the Cavendish family. He was invited to join the Cabinet on three occasions, but declined each offer. He was Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Governor of Cork, and Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. In 1782, he was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter.
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.
Jeanette Spencer-Churchill, known as Lady Randolph Spencer-Churchill, was an American-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill.
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, Lady Stirling-Maxwell was an active English social reformer and author. She left her husband, who was accused by many of coercive behaviour, in 1836. Her husband then sued her close friend Lord Melbourne, then the Whig Prime Minister, for criminal conversation (adultery).
Frances Evelyn "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick was a British socialite and philanthropist. Although embedded in late-Victorian British high society, she was also a campaigning socialist, supporting many schemes to aid the less well-off in education, housing, employment, and pay, and was often known as the "Red Countess". She established colleges for the education of women in agriculture and market gardening, first in Reading, then in Studley. She established a needlework school and employment scheme in Essex as well as using her ancestral homes to host events and schemes for the benefit of her tenants and workers. Greville was a long-term confidant or mistress to the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.
The Palliser novels are six novels written in series by Anthony Trollope. They were more commonly known as the Parliamentary novels prior to their 1974 television dramatisation by the BBC broadcast as The Pallisers. Marketed as "polite literature" during their initial publication, the novels encompass several literary genres including: family saga, bildungsroman, picaresque, as well as satire and parody of Victorian life, and criticism of the British government's predilection for attracting corrupt and corruptible people to power.
The Black Moth (1921) is a Georgian era romance novel by the British author Georgette Heyer, set around 1751. The Black Moth was Heyer's debut novel, published when Heyer was nineteen. It was a commercial success.
A Royal Scandal is a 1996 British television docudrama produced and directed by Sheree Folkson. The teleplay by Stanley Price focuses on the ill-fated marriage of George IV and Duchess Caroline of Brunswick. Dialogue from actual historical records reveals how each party tries to humiliate the other, causing the monarchy to suffer great embarrassment. Narrated by Ian Richardson, the drama was broadcast by the BBC.
Raine Spencer, Countess Spencer was a British socialite and local politician. She was the daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and the romantic novelist and socialite Barbara Cartland and the stepmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Gwendolen Harleth, later Gwendolen Grandcourt, is a central character in George Eliot's novel Daniel Deronda (1876). She acts as a foil to Mirah Lapidoth.
The Rich Are Always with Us is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, and Bette Davis. The screenplay by Austin Parker is based on the novel of the same name by Ethel Pettit.
Rumors is a young adult novel by author Anna Godbersen. It is the second book in The Luxe series.
Diana of the Crossways is a 1922 British silent drama film directed by Denison Clift and starring Fay Compton, Henry Victor and Joseph Tozer. It is an adaptation of the 1885 novel Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith.
Diana Of The Crossways public domain audiobook at LibriVox  | This article about an 1880s novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |
 | This article about a political novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |
