This work identifies various modes of address in George Meredith's fiction in the light of a knowledge of the contemporary readership addressed. Chapter One discusses the nature of the Victorian reading public, and concludes that it was not homogeneous but fractured, with Meredith's readership being identified with an intellectual elite, rather than with a majority who shared what Meredith called "public taste", But, after a consideration of how Meredith's reputation was established, it becomes clear that this reputation masked the actual address which the novels made to their readers.