# Is "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of Father and Son" by George Meredith a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of Father and Son by George Meredith (Chapman and Hall, 1859) is identified by: First edition, three volumes, octavo (196 x 123mm), paginated iv,303; iv,348; iv,395, published by Chapman and Hall and printed by John Edward Taylor.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, three volumes, octavo (196 x 123mm), paginated iv,303; iv,348; iv,395, published by Chapman and Hall and printed by John Edward Taylor
- Cited as Sadleir 1701 and Forman no
- Sadleir ranked this the fourth rarest of Meredith's works in original state, and Chapman and Hall left it unreprinted for nearly twenty years
- The 1878 revised-text edition was issued by a different publisher, Kegan Paul, so any copy bearing that later imprint is not the first edition
- Publisher imprint reads Chapman and Hall
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | George Meredith |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall |
| Year | 1859 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, three volumes, octavo (196 x 123mm), paginated iv,303; iv,348; iv,395, published by Chapman and Hall and printed by John… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, three volumes, octavo (196 x 123mm), paginated iv,303; iv,348; iv,395, published by Chapman and Hall and printed by John Edward Taylor. Cited as Sadleir 1701 and Forman no. 5. Sadleir ranked this the fourth rarest of Meredith's works in original state, and Chapman and Hall left it unreprinted for nearly twenty years. The 1878 revised-text edition was issued by a different publisher, Kegan Paul, so any copy bearing that later imprint is not the first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
The revised 1878 second English edition, published by Kegan Paul rather than Chapman and Hall, used Meredith's rewritten Tauchnitz text and must not be confused with the scarce 1859 three-volume first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of Father and Son* by George Meredith a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-ordeal-of-richard-feverel-a-history-of-father-and-son
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.