George Gissing

When their father’s death leaves them with no money and a dim future, the Madden sisters, Alice, Virginia, and Monica, must negotiate the gender roles and class constraints of 1890s Victorian London. Virginia and Alice have aged out of the possibility of marriage and seemingly the idea of love itself. They find themselves with few prospects and little hope. Remaindered in the marriage equation, these “odd women” face a great deal of scrutiny, stigma, and social pressure—it’s at this time that Rhoda Nunn, childhood friend to the Madden sisters, arrives in London to challenge accepted norms and mores around the role of women in society. Rhoda’s strong feminist passion draws a sharp contrast to the middle-class respectability of the Madden sisters’ upbring, as the sisters watch a new world emerge around them. Hailed as a prescient and boldly political novel of the early feminist movement, Gissing’s The Odd Women captures the absurdity, brutality, and even comedy of Victorian attitudes around the brilliant women who dared to be odd by conceiving of their role in society beyond their value as wives.

In late-Victorian London, two writers of radically different temperaments pursue contrasting approaches to the literary life. The first, the talented and cerebral novelist Edwin Reardon, appears to be doomed by his idealistic nature to a life of impecuniousness, whereas the second, the driven but cynical journalist Jasper Milvain, continually reaps the material rewards of a career devoted to market-driven hack writing. When Reardon’s intransigent sense of artistic integrity leads to the breakdown of his marriage, he begins to learn the true cost of his commitment to elevated principles and his refusal to pander to the demands of the marketplace, as the fates of the two rivals become ever more intertwined. Published in 1891, and described by Orwell as “Gissing’s masterpiece”, New Grub Street is a powerful, haunting exploration of the plight of the professional writer in a philistine age, and of the perennial dichotomy between literary merit and commercial success.

George Robert Gissing (22 November 1857 - 28 December 1903) was a British novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880. His best-known novels, which are published in modern editions, include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891) and The Odd Women (1893).

Born in Exile is a novel by George Gissing first published in 1892. It deals with the themes of class, religion, love and marriage. The premise of the novel is drawn from Gissing's own early life - an intellectually superior man born into a socially inferior milieu, though the story arc diverges significantly from the actuality. Gissing published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903.

George Robert Gissing (22 November 1857 - 28 December 1903) was a British novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880. His best-known novels, which are published in modern editions, include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891) and The Odd Women (1893).

Eve's Ransom is a novel by George Gissing, first published in 1895 as a serialisation in the Illustrated London News. It features the story of a mechanical draughtsman named Maurice Hilliard, who comes into some money, which enables him to live without working. As part of his resulting travels, he meets and falls in love with Eve Madeley, a book keeper. Eve's Ransom was published in a single-volume edition immediately after the conclusion of its serialisation, which was unusual at the time. The novel sold well, and a second edition soon followed, although critics were divided in their opinion of the work.