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New Grub Street #1
New Grub Street #1
One of the premium best-sellers of Victorian era first published in 1891.
Paperback
First published September 12, 2013
About the author
George Gissing
496 books213 followersPeople best know British writer George Robert Gissing for his novels, such as
New Grub Street
(1891), about poverty and hardship.
This English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.
Born to lower-middle-class parents, Gissing went 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: some critics count him alongside George Meredith and Thomas Hardy, the best 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.
This English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.
Born to lower-middle-class parents, Gissing went 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: some critics count him alongside George Meredith and Thomas Hardy, the best 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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 23, 2025
New Grub Street by George Gissing
10 out of 10
The only possible fault that some might find with this Magnus opus might be the ending and (without a spoiler alert or going into the details of it) even that could be construed as fabulous, given that it is not pleasing, but this is about life and then we must expect something other than ‘they married and they lived happily for ever after, with forty six children or so…’, although the author might have been a little gentler with his readers and not have the ultimate scoundrel win the big jackpot (the last was a joke and there is no lottery within), but still, this glorious book is included logically on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
Jasper Milvain seems to be the main character (although this would be subjective, and about six others may in fact share the same number of pages, more or less) and he could be perceived as the antihero, although a complex one, with skills and talents, a creative mind, a determination that made the under signed think of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair – with the caveat that the heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray, who, if this memory is correct, has specified that his masterpiece is a ‘novel without a hero’, was a very enchanting person.
This ‘alarmingly modern young man’ is sure that he would succeed – he defines success in an interesting manner, as having the means to procure pleasures, which might make us think of the Epicureans – and for that he appears to be ready for anything, courting a young woman and then perhaps think of making marital arrangements with another, willing to make promises, only to break them or, better still, make the victim of his charms act according to his wishes and decide to free him of any entanglements – perhaps even an engagement and a soon to come marriage, willing to write just for the present, before the era of consumerism, thinking only in what today would be tabloid schemes (although that would be an exaggeration)
In fact, his friend and admirer, Whelpdale, would conceive of a newspaper or magazine that anticipates the likes of The Sun in Britain, a tabloid before its time, with very short articles or quarters of articles, for the ‘quarter- educated’, people who have not been to school, or just passed quickly through it, who have a very short attention span – just as if they would be holding today’s smart phones, continuously in front of their eyes – unable to understand or keep looking at a longer, more demanding piece of writing, but would probably be fascinated by a less erudite paper, with titles like “what does the Queen eat”, suggested by the inventive Milvain.
The vain man is very interested in Marian Yule, a young, intellectual woman, daughter of Alfred Yule, who is spending a lot of time reading and studying – indeed, the antihero had noticed her in the reading room, before they are properly introduced, then the sisters of the rather contemptible Jasper, Dora and Maud, become friends with the modest, serious, brave, dedicated, loyal, but so unfortunate Marian, who becomes infatuated with the wrong individual, and when she sees signs that he is selfish, self-centered, perhaps cruel and unscrupulous, she still offers her friendship and love, remains attached to one who does not derive her.
Edwin Reardon is yet another one of the literary figures of the novel – which has almost all the personages either deeply involved with literature – which used to mean culture pure and simple, as we learn from Alfred Yule, who has read it in Johnson’s dictionary – or they have a spouse, family member that lives from and into it – and he has had an important success with previous works, is now married with Amy, formerly Yule, and he is facing a gradual descent into squalor and destitution, seeing as he lacks inspiration lately and he is under pressure to provide food for his family and his wife is increasingly detached and rather angry with him, because aside from the prospect of moving to a grotesque quarters, there is also the issue of shame, losing status in society and being humiliated and rejected.
The tension between Reardon and his wife is growing steadily, to the point where she suggests that the writer should take a break and try writing in the country somewhere, given that he has problems finding his muse and what gets published lately is criticized and even rejected by some publishers and/or critics, but the man sees that the reality, or what he perceives of it, is that he has lost the affection of the consort that should have been much more supportive, must have been ready to share the future lodgings with him, no matter how destitute they would become and what the others would say of this abrupt loss of prestige and standing in society, while the woman looks at the change and thinks that the man is responsible and he owed it to her and their son to make the effort, travel somewhere to try and write something worthwhile and return eventually to his former status.
Harold Biffen is another writer, one who lives in even worse circumstances that all the others perhaps and he has a glorious moment when, after finishing the manuscript of his novel about a grocer – or was he a butcher? – he leaves the house, only to return and find it in flames, after which, with a superman effort, he dares to jump into the fire, aware that his work would be gone if he does not show the ultimate bravery, in the knowledge that he may die, if the narrow escape, through a glass in the attic somewhere is closed and even after he manages to get through the first, seemingly impossible obstacles, it looks like he is doomed in front of yet another stumbling block…then his papers seem to be missing and finally, we do not know if the poor man would ever make it out of the story in one piece…
Jasper Milvain is happy to ask for the hand of the pure, moral, upstanding, too good for him Marian, but only after he finds that she is about to inherit 5,000 pounds, which might be 200,000 or more in the currency of this day, and when the apparent good fate turn out to be a game of fate, for the people who were supposed to provide the money do not have or just do not provide it, the villainous young man suffers a transformation, but not for the better, it is not a transcendence, an understanding that money would never bring the fortune of being loved by such a Wonder Woman…
New Grub Street is a chef d’oeuvre
10 out of 10
The only possible fault that some might find with this Magnus opus might be the ending and (without a spoiler alert or going into the details of it) even that could be construed as fabulous, given that it is not pleasing, but this is about life and then we must expect something other than ‘they married and they lived happily for ever after, with forty six children or so…’, although the author might have been a little gentler with his readers and not have the ultimate scoundrel win the big jackpot (the last was a joke and there is no lottery within), but still, this glorious book is included logically on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
Jasper Milvain seems to be the main character (although this would be subjective, and about six others may in fact share the same number of pages, more or less) and he could be perceived as the antihero, although a complex one, with skills and talents, a creative mind, a determination that made the under signed think of Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair – with the caveat that the heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray, who, if this memory is correct, has specified that his masterpiece is a ‘novel without a hero’, was a very enchanting person.
This ‘alarmingly modern young man’ is sure that he would succeed – he defines success in an interesting manner, as having the means to procure pleasures, which might make us think of the Epicureans – and for that he appears to be ready for anything, courting a young woman and then perhaps think of making marital arrangements with another, willing to make promises, only to break them or, better still, make the victim of his charms act according to his wishes and decide to free him of any entanglements – perhaps even an engagement and a soon to come marriage, willing to write just for the present, before the era of consumerism, thinking only in what today would be tabloid schemes (although that would be an exaggeration)
In fact, his friend and admirer, Whelpdale, would conceive of a newspaper or magazine that anticipates the likes of The Sun in Britain, a tabloid before its time, with very short articles or quarters of articles, for the ‘quarter- educated’, people who have not been to school, or just passed quickly through it, who have a very short attention span – just as if they would be holding today’s smart phones, continuously in front of their eyes – unable to understand or keep looking at a longer, more demanding piece of writing, but would probably be fascinated by a less erudite paper, with titles like “what does the Queen eat”, suggested by the inventive Milvain.
The vain man is very interested in Marian Yule, a young, intellectual woman, daughter of Alfred Yule, who is spending a lot of time reading and studying – indeed, the antihero had noticed her in the reading room, before they are properly introduced, then the sisters of the rather contemptible Jasper, Dora and Maud, become friends with the modest, serious, brave, dedicated, loyal, but so unfortunate Marian, who becomes infatuated with the wrong individual, and when she sees signs that he is selfish, self-centered, perhaps cruel and unscrupulous, she still offers her friendship and love, remains attached to one who does not derive her.
Edwin Reardon is yet another one of the literary figures of the novel – which has almost all the personages either deeply involved with literature – which used to mean culture pure and simple, as we learn from Alfred Yule, who has read it in Johnson’s dictionary – or they have a spouse, family member that lives from and into it – and he has had an important success with previous works, is now married with Amy, formerly Yule, and he is facing a gradual descent into squalor and destitution, seeing as he lacks inspiration lately and he is under pressure to provide food for his family and his wife is increasingly detached and rather angry with him, because aside from the prospect of moving to a grotesque quarters, there is also the issue of shame, losing status in society and being humiliated and rejected.
The tension between Reardon and his wife is growing steadily, to the point where she suggests that the writer should take a break and try writing in the country somewhere, given that he has problems finding his muse and what gets published lately is criticized and even rejected by some publishers and/or critics, but the man sees that the reality, or what he perceives of it, is that he has lost the affection of the consort that should have been much more supportive, must have been ready to share the future lodgings with him, no matter how destitute they would become and what the others would say of this abrupt loss of prestige and standing in society, while the woman looks at the change and thinks that the man is responsible and he owed it to her and their son to make the effort, travel somewhere to try and write something worthwhile and return eventually to his former status.
Harold Biffen is another writer, one who lives in even worse circumstances that all the others perhaps and he has a glorious moment when, after finishing the manuscript of his novel about a grocer – or was he a butcher? – he leaves the house, only to return and find it in flames, after which, with a superman effort, he dares to jump into the fire, aware that his work would be gone if he does not show the ultimate bravery, in the knowledge that he may die, if the narrow escape, through a glass in the attic somewhere is closed and even after he manages to get through the first, seemingly impossible obstacles, it looks like he is doomed in front of yet another stumbling block…then his papers seem to be missing and finally, we do not know if the poor man would ever make it out of the story in one piece…
Jasper Milvain is happy to ask for the hand of the pure, moral, upstanding, too good for him Marian, but only after he finds that she is about to inherit 5,000 pounds, which might be 200,000 or more in the currency of this day, and when the apparent good fate turn out to be a game of fate, for the people who were supposed to provide the money do not have or just do not provide it, the villainous young man suffers a transformation, but not for the better, it is not a transcendence, an understanding that money would never bring the fortune of being loved by such a Wonder Woman…
New Grub Street is a chef d’oeuvre
August 26, 2015
I was drawn to reading this by my delight in Gissing's "The Nether World" and I was not disappointed. Though dealing with a higher level of British society in the 1880s than the former, this novel presents an equally bleak view of life. Despite Gissing's pessimism - he had no great confidence in reform or progress - he has a wonderful ability to make one care deeply for his characters. The story is carried along at a cracking pace and one does hear one shouting internally "Do this!" or "Don't do that!" - the mark of a really entertaining novelist.
I cannot recommend this too highly - read it and you'll be hooked on Gissing. I'm now half-way through a third book by him and I'm not disappointed. A real find!
I cannot recommend this too highly - read it and you'll be hooked on Gissing. I'm now half-way through a third book by him and I'm not disappointed. A real find!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews