The novel The Egoist (1879) was a new word in the history of English prose of the XIX-XX centuries and had a significant influence on the formation of the genre of psychological novel in later authors - in Stevenson, Conrad and especially Galsworthy, who used Sir Wiloby as a prototype of Soames Forsyth .. The action of the novel - "comedy for reading" develops in an artificial, isolated atmosphere of the Pattern Hall, where "the dust of everyday squabbles does not penetrate from the outside, where there is no dirt, no sharp collisions" . Ordinary everyday worries and material deprivations do not gravitate over the heroes of the novel. English writer George Meredith sought to create characters of broad typical significance in imitation of the images of the great comedian Molire. Thus selfishness is Sir Wiloby's chief property, as is Tartuffe's hypocrisy or Harpagon's stinginess.