New Grub Street

New Grub Street

Summary

George Gissing's best-known novel shows us the literary underbelly of Victorian England, and the writers striving to forge their reputations in 'the street of no shame'.

‘As a study in the pathology of the literary life it is unequalled, and still surprisingly relevant’ David Lodge, Independent


Grub Street - where would-be writers aim high, publishers plumb the depths and literature is a trade, never a calling. In a literary world disfigured by greed and explotation, two very different writers rise and fall: Edward Reardon, a novelist whose high standards prevent him from pandering to the common taste, and Jasper Milvain, who possesses no such scruples. Gissing's dark and darkly funny novel presents a little-seen but richly absorbing slice of nineteeth-century society.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANTHONY QUINN

Reviews

  • New Grub Street...remains to this day the most devastating fictive portrayal of the conflict between materialism and idealism in the literary and journalistic worlds
    Washington Post

About the author

George Gissing

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