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New Grub Street

George Gissing

In "New Grub Street" George Gissing re-created a microcosm of London's literary society as he had experienced it. His novel is at once a major social document and a story that draws us irresistibly into the twilit world of Edwin Reardon, a struggling novelist, and his friends and acquaintances in Grub Street including Jasper Milvain, an ambitious journalist, and Alfred Yule, an embittered critic. Here Gissing brings to life the bitter battles (fought out in obscure garrets or in the Reading Room of the British Museum) between integrity and the dictates of the market place, the miseries of genteel poverty and the damage that failure and hardship do to human personality and relationships.
The Odd Women (Oxford World's Classics)

George Gissing

A novel of social realism, The Odd Women reflects the major sexual and cultural issues of the late nineteenth century. Unlike the "New Woman" novels of the era which challenged the idea that the unmarried woman was superfluous, Gissing satirizes that image and portrays women as "odd" and marginal in relation to an ideal. Set in a grimy, fog-ridden London, Gissing's "odd" women range from the idealistic, financially self-sufficient Mary Barfoot to the Madden sisters who struggle to subsist in low paying jobs and little chance for joy. With narrative detachment, Gissing portrays contemporary society's blatant ambivalence towards its own period of transition. Judged by contemporary critics to be as provocative as Zola and Ibsen, Gissing produced an "intensely modern" work as the issues it raises remain the subject of contemporary debate.
The Nether World (Oxford World's Classics)

George Gissing

The Nether World (1889), generally regarded as the finest of Gissing's early novels, is a highly dramatic, sometimes violent tale of man's caustic vision shaped by the bitter personal experience of poverty. This tale of intrigue depicts life among the artisans, factory-girls, and slum-dwellers, documenting an inescapable world devoid of sentimentality and steeped with people scheming and struggling to survive. With Zolaesque intensity and relentlessness, Gissing lays bare the economic forces which determine the aspirations and expectations of those born to a life of labor.
In The Year Of The Jubilee

George Gissing

1895. The book begins: At eight o'clock on Sunday morning, Arthur Peachey unlocked his front door, and quietly went forth. He had not ventured to ask that early breakfast should be prepared for him. Enough that he was leaving home for a summer holiday-the first he had allowed himself since his marriage three years ago.
Charles Dickens A Critical Study

George Gissing

One thing to be learnt from every page of the biography is the strenuous spirit in which Dickens wrought. Whatever our judgment as to the result, his zeal and energy were those of the born artist. Passages numberless might be quoted from his letters, showing how he enjoyed the labour of production, how he threw himself into the imaginative world with which he was occupied, how impossible it was for him to put less than all his splendid force into the task of the moment.
In the Year of Jubilee

George Gissing

The fiftieth anniversary of Victoria's reign is a year of celebration and, for young Londoners, a year to experience adult society. After the Jubilee, it will be time to face the consequences of innocent pleasures and frivolous pursuits. A cigarette-smoking business woman, an "examination girl," and an ad man complete the cast for Gissing's (1857-1903) pessimistic evaluation of mass culture.
By the Ionian Sea: Notes of a Ramble in Southern Italy (Marlboro Travel)

George Gissing

When the gentleman traveler George Gissing headed for Calabria in 1897 he wrote, "Every man has his intellectual desire; mine is to escape life as I know it and dream myself into that old world which was the imaginative delight of my boyhood." Gissing, who led a life filled with hardship and bitter disappointment, yearned for the rapture of the river Galaesus and the freedom he associated with the classical vision. Though he encountered rough terrain, poor accommodations, and often bitter disappointment, he learned the truth about himself and emerged triumphant.
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (Oxford World's Classics)

George Gissing
Born In Exile

George Gissing

PART THE FIRST BORN IN EXILE - THE summer day in 1874 which closed the annual session of Whitelaw College was marked by a special the wonted distribution of academic ceremony, preceding rewards. At eleven in the morning just as a heavy shower fell from the smoke -canopy above the roaring streets the municipal authorities, educational dignitaries, and prominent burgesses of Kingsmill assembled on an open space before the college to unveil a statue of Sir Job Whitelaw. The honoured baronet had been six months dead. Living, he opposed the desire of his fellow-citizens to exhibit even on canvas his gnarled features and bald crown but when his modesty ceased to have a voice in the matter, no time was lost in raising a memorial of the great manufacturer, the selfmade millionaire, the borough member in three Parliaments, the enlightened and benevolent founder of an institute which had conferred humane distinction on the money-making Midland town. Beneath such a sky, orations were necessarily curtailed but Sir Job had always been impatient of much talk. An interval of two or three hours dispersed the rain-clouds and bestowed such grace of sunshine as Kingsmill might at this season temperately desire then, whilst the marble figure was getting dried, with soot-stains which already foretold its nigritude of a year hence, again streamed towards the college a varied multitude, official, parental, pupillary. The students had nothing distinctive in their garb, but here and there flitted the cap and gown of Professor or lecturer, signal for doffing of beavers along the line of its progress. Among the more deliberate of the throng was a slender, upright, ruddy-cheeked gentleman of middle age, accompanied by his wife and a daughter of sixteen. On alighting from a carriage, they first of all directed their steps towards the statue, conversing together with pleasant animation. The father Martin Warricombe, Esq. of Thornhaw, a small estate some five miles from Kingsmill, had a countenance suggestive of engaging qualities genial humour, mildness, a turn for meditation, perhaps for study. His attire was informal, as if he disliked abandoning the freedom of the country even when summoned to urban ceremonies. He wore a grey felt hat, and a light jacket which displayed the straightness of his shoulders. Mrs. Warricombe and her daughter were more fashionably equipped, with taste which proclaimed their social standing. Save her fresh yet delicate complexion the lady had no particular personal charm. Of the young girl it could only be said that she exhibited a graceful immaturity, with perchance a little more earnestness than is common at her age her voice, even when she spoke gaily, was seldom audible save by the person addressed. Coming to a pause before Sir Job, Mr. Warricombe put on a pair of eyeglasses which had dangled against his waistcoat, and began to scrutinise carefully the sculptured lineaments. He was addressing certain critical remarks to his companions when an interruption appeared in the form of a young man whose first words announced his relation to the group. I say, youre very late Therell be no getting a decent seat, if you dont mind. Leave Sir Job till afterwards. The statue somehow disappoints me, observed his father, placidly. Oh, it isnt bad, I think, returned the youth, in a voice not unlike his fathers, save for a note of excessive self-confidence. He looked about eighteen his comely countenance, with its air of robust health and habitual exhilaration, told of a boyhood passed amid free and joyous circumstances. It was the face of a young English plutocrat, with more of intellect than such visages are wont to betray the native vigour of his temperament had probably assimilated something of the modern spirit...
By the Ionian Sea (Dodo Press)

George Gissing

George Gissing was an English novelist, who wrote twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. Although his early works are naturalistic, he developed into one of the the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, to lower-middle class parents, Gissing went on to win a scholarship to Owens College, the present day University of Manchester. A brilliant student, he excelled at university, winning many coveted prizes, including the Shakespeare prize in 1875. Between 1891 and 1897 (his so-called middle period) he produced his best works, which include New Grub Street, Born in Exile, The Odd Women, In the Year of Jubilee, and The Whirlpool. The middle years of the decade saw his reputation reach new heights: by some critics he is counted alongside George Meredith and Thomas Hardy as one of the best three novelists of his day. He also enjoyed new friendships with fellow writers such as Henry James, and H.G. Wells, and came into contact with many other up and coming writers such as Joseph Conrad and Stephen Crane.
The Unclassed

George Gissing

Julian never forgot the promise he had made to his uncle that Christmas night, eight years ago, when he was a lad of thirteen. Harriet he had always regarded as his sister, and never yet had he failed in brotherly duty to her.
Born in Exile Volume I [EasyRead Large Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume II (Large Print)

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume II [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume II [EasyRead Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume II [EasyRead Large Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume III (Large Print)

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume III [EasyRead Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.
Born in Exile Volume III [EasyRead Large Edition]

George Gissing

This novel reflects the conflicts between the major truths of life.