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New Grub Street (Modern Library Classics)

George Gissing

Hailed as Gissing’s finest novel, New Grub Street portrays the intrigues and hardships of the publishing world in late Victorian England. In a materialistic, class-conscious society that rewards commercial savvy over artistic achievement, authors and scholars struggle to earn a living without compromising their standards. “Even as the novel chills us with its still-recognizable portrayal of the crass and vulgar world of literary endeavor,” writes Francine Prose in her Introduction, “its very existence provides eloquent, encouraging proof of the fact that a powerful, honest writer can transcend the constraints of commerce.”

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the 1891 first edition.
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

This is a basic work on Charles Dickens by Dickens's most ardent post-Victorian defender, the "Chronicler of Grubb Street." Still an important study for all who wish to know Dickens better.
THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY: Books for College Libraries; Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature; Catalogue of the Lamont Library, Harvard College.
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

With the growth of his militant egoism, there had developed in Godwin Peak an excess of nervous sensibility which threatened to deprive his character of the initiative rightly belonging to it. Self-assertion is the practical complement of self-esteem. To be largely endowed with the latter quality, yet constrained by a coward delicacy to repress it, is to suffer martyrdom at the pleasure of every robust assailant, and in the end be driven to the refuge of a moody solitude.
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

Short excerpt: Miss Rutherford darted into the schoolroom and at once there was quietness save for half-choked sobs here and there and a more ominous kind of moaning from the crowded corner.
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.