The Nether World by George Gissing

The Nether World by George Gissing

The Nether World (1889) is generally regarded as the finest of Gissing's early novels. A fast moving story of highly dramatic, sometimes violent scenes, it depicts life amongst the artisans, factory-girls, and slum-dwellers of Clerkenwell in the 1870s. But this is not just a novel of documentary realism. It is one man's mordant vision - shaped by bitter personal experience of poverty - of the quality of life endured by a variety of characters in the nether world. With Zolaesque intensity and relentlessness, Gissing lays bare the economic forces which determine the aspirations and expectations of those born to a life of labour. This is a tale of intrigue, as rapacious schemers try to wrest a fortune out of a mysterious old man who has returned to their midst, and of thwarted love. There is no sentimentality. This is a world in which the strong exercise power against their own kind, scheming and struggling for survival, a world from which, Gissing bleakly maintains, there can be no escape. This book is intended for general readers, students of Victorian literature, and the nineteenth century novel.

Between 1880 and 1903, George Robert Gissing (1857-1903), an English novelist, published 23 books. Throughout his life, Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor. Workers in the Dawn, his debut novel, was published in 1880. The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), and The Odd Ladies (1893) are among his best-known books, all of which have been reprinted in current editions.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780192817693
ISBN 10	0192817698
Title	The Nether World
Author	George Gissing
Series	^Aworld's Classics Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	1992-06-01
Number of pages	438
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.