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George Gissing's work reflects his observations of fin-de-siecle London life. Influenced by the French naturalist school, his realist representations of urban culture testify to the significance of the city for the development of new class and gender identities, particularly for women. Liggins's study, which considers standard texts such as "The Odd Women", "New Grub Street", and "The Nether World" as well as lesser known short works, examines Gissing's fiction in relation to the formation of these new identities, focusing specifically on debates about the working woman. From the 1880s onward, a new genre of urban fiction increasingly focused on work as a key aspect of the modern woman's identity, elements of which were developed in the "New Woman" fiction of the 1890s. Showing his fascination with the working woman and her narrative potential, Gissing portrays women from a wide variety of occupations, ranging from factory girls, actresses, prostitutes, and shop girls to writers, teachers, clerks, and musicians.Liggins argues that by placing the working woman at the center of his narratives, rather than at the margins, Gissing made an important contribution to the development of urban fiction, which increasingly reflected current debates about women's presence in the city. ... Read more

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This essay collection, bringing together British, European and North American literary critics and cultural historians with diverse specialities and interests, demonstrates the range of contemporary perspectives through which Gissing's fiction can viwed. Offering both closely contexualised historical readings and broader assessments. ... Read more

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Arguably, no topic dominates the Victorian novel more than that of money; no other Victorian novelist was more preoccupied with this subject than George Gissing (1857-1903).

In the first full-length study of this perplexing but compelling novelist, James examines how Gissing's work reveals an unhappy accommodation with money's underwriting of human existence and culture, and how daily life in all its forms -- moral, intellectual, familial and erotic -- is transcended or made irrelevant by the commodification of everyday life. Novels such as "New Grub Street" expose high culture's dependence on the ruthless Darwinism of late Victorian capitalism: literary and personal success can only be achieved by understanding and adapting to the immanent and irresistible nature of a market hostile to the development of human self-betterment.

Situated against nineteenth-century analyses of monetary relations by thinkers such as Ruskin, Mill, Marx and Carlyle, and novels by Dickens, Eliot and Hardy, "Unsettled Accounts" demonstrates how Gissing's work is engagedly modern, dealing as it does with changes in the nature of the literary market, advertising, imperialism, the New Woman, and the condition of the working classes.

This groundbreaking new study, published in the centenary of Gissing's death, will be of considerable interest to undergraduates, researchers and scholars. A valuable introduction to Gissing's work, it claims a prominent place for him in fin-de-siècle Victorian literature. ... Read more

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A previously unpublished manuscript, this essay was part of the record Gissing compiled while a student at Owens College, Manchester. Written at the age of 15, it reflects an excellent knowledge of Burns' life and work. While it does not reveal anything new, it is of value as an indication of Gissing's mind in youth, and also accurately reflects the Victorian attitude toward Burns. This volume includes a selection of Burns's poems. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1912Original Publisher: Mitchell KennerleySubjects: Fiction / ClassicsLiterary Criticism / GeneralLiterary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, WelshNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or an index.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more