New Grub Street George Gissing 9781542721059 Books
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The story is about the literary world of late-Victorian London that Gissing inhabited, and its title, New Grub Street, alludes to the London street, Grub Street, which in the 18th century became synonymous with the "hack writing" that pervades Gissing's novel; Grub Street itself was no longer extant when Gissing was writing. The novel contrasts Edwin Reardon, a congenitally uncommercial but talented writer, against Jasper Milvain, a selfish and unscrupulous hack who rejects artistic endeavour for material gain. Milvain's trite, manipulative work ascends while Reardon's work--and his life--spiral downward. The novel suggests that the literary world rewards materialistic self-promotion more than serious artistic sensibility. Gissing's biography--a respected writer who struggled for a long time to obtain commercial success--strongly suggests the novel is autobiographical, the author's stand-in being (of course) Reardon.
New Grub Street George Gissing 9781542721059 Books
Some great writers, occasionally write just good books and some good writers are wont to write great books. New Grub Street is a great book. Note that I do not say a great "read" but specifically a book.Yes this is a satiric account of the publishing world of Victorian England and perhaps things have not changed that much in the publishing world but then again that can be said of human nature. It is the almost perfect depictions of every character in the book that is was makes this book remarkable. Today a reviewer may wax eloquently about psychological insights and ramble on about Freudian influences but Mr. Gissing enviably does not subject his readers to such cant but rather exposes the souls of each character in such a fundamental sense, that we are not surprised by the fate of each character but impressed by the pristine observations that Mr. Gissing makes.
Writers on the make, writers who fail to recognize that they have no genius, women who betray their ideals or fail to recognize their true aspirations, mothers, fathers, extended families all come upon the scene to add to this elaborate mosaic. Dickens did it, and here Mr. Gissing does it also. This is a quite remarkable find for the discerning reader and worth being revisited many times.
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New Grub Street George Gissing 9781542721059 Books Reviews
I first read this in grad school about 50 yrs ago (yes, I'm 70+ yrs old). I've been revisiting some of the 19th century English novels I read way back when & remembered the title but not the plot. It's a thoroughly entertaining read even for a 21st c. audience. For a Victorian, Gissing writes very readable prose w/out the purple tint of, say, Dickens. The novel is a trenchant comment on writers and their product of the day, w/ special scorn heaped on The Literary Critic. Gissing obviously believes thst those who can, write & thosr who can't, criticize.
New Grub Street is a novel about writers -- nearly every character is a writer or a near relation -- but apart from a few brief cameos, there isn't an established writer in the entire book. Instead, some are formerly successful authors unable to adapt to the literary climate of the 1880's, exemplified by Edwin Reardon, and some are modern men who are destined to thrive in this modern world, like Jasper Milvain. Gissing tracks their different paths through the marketplace, and the inevitable outcome.
The rise of one man (or class of men, as the case may be) contrasting with the fall of another is a thin frame to stretch a story over, let alone a 500-page story, but with infinite bitterness, Gissing makes it work. I don't think I've ever read a novel so suffused with hatred for society, for what society makes us do for money, what it can do to human relationships, and what money, love and work (which Gissing somehow portrays as equally repulsive, whether available or unavailable) can do to people. No character is really sympathetic, being either pitiful (like Reardon) or weaselly (like Milvain). The inexhaustible sorrow, cynicism and hopelessness are compelling enough to carry the whole novel.
In this way, Gissing seems to anticipate the Modernist movement. His vision of the alternatives open to individuals -- being impoverished and humiliated by society, or slavishly serving it, alienated either way -- suggests themes in Brecht, Orwell, and Sinclair Lewis 40 years later. At the same time, much of the novel is still fundamentally Victorian. Courtship and marriage are as crucial as they were a hundred years before. People get sick and die at narratively convenient moments. And of *course* the plot hinges on a will. Still, it's an appealing combination. Where else are you going to see that kind of blend?
And it's the wordy Victorian dialogue that makes this book a real winner. Gissing's depictions of couples arguing are particularly accurate (or at least they seem that way to me, which confirms my suspicion that I argue like an 1880's Englishman.) And he can draw out characters in just a few lines of conversation. For instance, here Milvain is trying to give Reardon ideas for his next novel
"Couldn't we invent a good title -- something to catch eye and ear? The title would suggest the story, you know."
Reardon laughed contemptuously, but the scorn was directed against himself rather than Milvain.
"Let's try," he muttered.
Both appeared to exercise their minds on the problem for a few minutes. Then Jasper slapped his knee.
"How would this do 'The Weird Sisters'? Devilish good, eh? Suggests all sorts of things, both to the vulgar and the educated. Nothing brutally clap-trap about it, you know."
"But -- what does it suggest to you?
"Oh, witch-like, mysterious girls or women. Think it over."
There was another long silence. Reardon's face was a that of a man in blank misery.
This is generally regarded as George Gissing's best novel. It certainly is a great novel, but what needs to be said is that Gissing wrote at least three great novels, all of which could stand as his "masterpiece".
I refer to THE ODD WOMEN and BORN IN EXILE. Both George Orwell, Gissing's champion, and Queenie Leavis, who had very different standards than Orwell, consider EXILE to be the masterpiece. This trio of masterpieces deserves a greater readership than they've had since they were first published.
Gissing was also a very good critic, though unfortunately he wrote only one book of lit crit, a study of Dickens that ranks with the best of Dickens criticism.
What's odd to me is that in the period of Gissing's general neglect, HENRY RYECROFT was thought to be the best of his books. In fact, I'd say it's one of his minor works, far behind other great reads like THE NETHER WORLD, DEMOS, IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, etc.
The standard criticism of Gissing was always that his prose was wooden. Anthony Powell, no slouch himself when it came to writing occasional lifeless sentences, accuses Gissing of this failing. It's true that he sometimes writes very badly (Orwell cites several examples in his essay on Gissing), but a novelist isn't a poet and bad patches of writing have very little to do with the greatness of a novel. If they did, who would read Dostoevsky or Zola?
I highly recommend NEW GRUB STREET as well as the other novels mentioned above and some of the others in Gissing's oeuvre. He's a writer who commands more attention than he's received.
Some great writers, occasionally write just good books and some good writers are wont to write great books. New Grub Street is a great book. Note that I do not say a great "read" but specifically a book.
Yes this is a satiric account of the publishing world of Victorian England and perhaps things have not changed that much in the publishing world but then again that can be said of human nature. It is the almost perfect depictions of every character in the book that is was makes this book remarkable. Today a reviewer may wax eloquently about psychological insights and ramble on about Freudian influences but Mr. Gissing enviably does not subject his readers to such cant but rather exposes the souls of each character in such a fundamental sense, that we are not surprised by the fate of each character but impressed by the pristine observations that Mr. Gissing makes.
Writers on the make, writers who fail to recognize that they have no genius, women who betray their ideals or fail to recognize their true aspirations, mothers, fathers, extended families all come upon the scene to add to this elaborate mosaic. Dickens did it, and here Mr. Gissing does it also. This is a quite remarkable find for the discerning reader and worth being revisited many times.
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