In the Year of Jubilee by George Gissing

In the Year of Jubilee by George Gissing

In the Year of Jubilee (1894) is a novel by George Gissing. Inspired by his own struggles as a working writer and unhappily married man, Gissing crafts a tale of romance and ambition that measures the dreams of one woman against the realities of an unjust society. In the Year of Jubilee poses important questions about convention in Victorian England while proving surprisingly relevant for our own times. Nancy Lord is a young, well-educated woman raised by a single father following the death of her mother. After completing her schooling, Nancy looks forward to a life of independence and success, but struggles with an inability to focus her ambition. In a moment of uncertainty, she allows herself to be wooed by Lionel Tarrant, a handsome and charming young man who promises her love and security. The two are soon married, but when Nancy becomes pregnant her husband decides to leave for the Bahamas, swearing he must do so in order to provide for his wife and child. Alone and heartbroken, Nancy steels herself, lowers her aspirations, and finds work as a dressmaker at a shop owned by Beatrice, the sibling of her sister-in-law Fanny. Meanwhile, her brother Horace wallows in an unhappy marriage while failing as a businessman and disappointing his elderly father. When Lionel returns, he gains his way back into Nancy's life through pity, relying on her to provide for the family while controlling and limiting her life. In the Year of Jubilee explores the inequities of class and gender in Victorian England while suggesting that the struggle for happiness is often what drives us to misery. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of George Gissing's In the Year of Jubilee is a classic work of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Gissing, George: - George Gissing (1857-1903) was an English novelist, noted for the unflinching realism of his novels about the lower middle class. Gissing was educated at Owens College, Manchester, where his academic career was brilliant until he was expelled (and briefly imprisoned) for theft. The life of near poverty and constant drudgery-writing and teaching-that he led until the mid-1880s is described in the novels New Grub Street (1891) and The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903). Before he was 21 he conceived the ambition of writing a long series of novels, somewhat in the manner of Balzac, whom he admired. The first of these, Workers in the Dawn, appeared in 1880, to be followed by 21 others. Between 1886 and 1895 he published one or more novels every year. He also wrote Charles Dickens: A Critical Study (1898), a perceptive piece of literary criticism. His work is serious-though not without a good deal of comic observation-and scrupulously honest. On the social position and psychology of women he is particularly acute: The Odd Women (1893) is a powerful study of female frustration. Gissing was deeply critical, in an almost wholly negative way, of contemporary society.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780701207342
ISBN 10	0701207345
Title	In the Year of Jubilee
Author	George Gissing
Series	Hogarth Fiction
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House (UK)
Year published	1987-01-12
Number of pages	464
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.