This essay offers a new reading of George Meredith's 1885 novel Diana of the Crossways from the perspective of cognitive theory as it has been developed by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and Mark Turner. Analyzing the novel's system of conceptual metaphors, I argue for the generative power of metaphor (as distinct from its thematic treatment or stylistic deployment, which have always been acknowledged) in Diana. A cognitive perspective reveals that the novel is as much a network of interrelated metaphors as it is a narrative sequence, and sheds light on Meredith's understanding of the relationship between mind and body. In Diana, marriage is a creative blend, to use a theory developed by Turner, and the redistribution of its input domains constitutes the movement of the narrative. [E.B.]