[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.
[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.
In 1922 the novel was adapted into a film Diana of the Crossways directed by Denison Clift and starring Fay Compton and Henry Victor.