Out of left field, from the editors of The Collected Letters of George Gissing, comes a refeshing new view of Gissing--plus some charming turn-of-century Americana. The oddly successful combinaton comes about in this way. When the English novelist, desperate to escape for a time from his miserable marriage, visited Italy in 1897-98, he met there a 20-year old American traveller named Brian Boru Dunne. The precocious young man, who would later become a journalist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, kept a diary of their conversations over several months, recording Gissing's opinions on literature, modern and ancient Rome, and everything else that interested them. Years later, he wrote p some of his notes. The diary is lost, but the editors have used Dunne's surviving materials to create a fascinating portrait that shows us a more unbuttoned and humorous Gissing than we knew. Because Dunne is worthy of interest in himself, they have seen fit to include some other pieces: William Jennings Bryan's unconsciously hilarious rules for oratory; Cardinal Gibons' recipe for longevity; and an interview with Mark Twain written by Twain himself. Their 40-page introduction to Dunne and Gissing is unexpectedly fascinating. The voluminous footnotes explain so much, and in such style, that they are an integral part of the reading experience. This beautifully produced, amusing, and illuminating miscellany should attract all Gissing readers, and they will be rewarded by more than they bargained for.

As a long-time student of George Gissing's work and one of his first biographers, I was delighted to read this vivid and perceptive first-hand account of his activities and opinions. Few people who knew Gissing personally have left memoirs of him, and Dunne's is certainly the fullest up-close portrait that we have. He describes Gissing's writing and eating habits, his attention to clothes, his reactions to Italy and his people, and his opinions of other writers, and all this helps to clarify the novelist's character. I especially appreciated the excellent informative notes, which provided much needed background, and brought Dunne himself forward as an interesting and significant figure.

I stumbled onto George Gissing two years ago through his travel classic "By The Ionian Sea: Notes on a Ramble Through Southern Italy." I had not read much late-Victorian writing, except for brief forays into Thomas Hardy. Now I have found a new champion -- George Gissing -- and am discovering that post-industrial era through his works. In this process, I discovered Dunne's delightful memoir and was drawn to it because it recalled a time in Gissing's life when he seem most happiest: his 1897-1898 tour of Southern Italy, the setting for "By the Ionian Sea." Dunne's memoir -- wonderfully edited to fully explain all references, from obvious to obscure -- can be read on more than one level. First, it gives a vivid recounting, through an innocent young journalist's eyes that miss little, of a golden three or four months or so in Rome, hobnobbing with Gissing and two other Victorian writers, H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle. It also can be seen as "a work in progress" where the reader can examine how Dunne, by now in middle age and an accomplished writer in his own right, moved from diary through drafts of memoirs. And particularly important for the Gissing enthusiast is the introduction, which puts the era in perspective and paints a vivid picture of the players in Dunne's Roman holiday.

"Brief Lives" has always been a delight, but it was Oliver Lawson Dick's scholarly editing that revealed Aubrey's genius. And Lawson Dick's Introduction, "The Life and Times of John Aubrey", is a miracle of synthesis and compression: certainly one of the finest biographical essays ever written. This Nonpareil Books edition is sumptuous - a joy to read in these days cheap, quickly produced paperbacks.

What possessed George Gissing -- best known for his hardscrabble pictures of poverty in London, such as NEW GRUB STREET -- to travel to Southern Italy and write a classical travel book about his journey? Yet there he is, working his way along the underside of the boot of Italy as a traveller. Even then, the area was known primarily for its rural poverty and has not attracted tourism at any time in its existence since the Greeks settled there over 2,000 years ago.

And yet this is perhaps Gissing's most charming book. He becomes ill, is taken care of by strangers, does his best to escape the clutches of the local bands of outlaws, and succeeds in his quest to see a corner of Europe known to few outside of Italy.

I highly recommend this book as the best introduction to a writer who deserves a revaluation of his literary reputation.

I rate this book 5 stars because it gives you all the information you need on gissing. I had to write a four page paper on him and it gave me everything I needed. I wish that there were more books in the world that gave that much information on one single, simple little subject. I haven't seen a book in years that has actually had all the information you need all in one book. I didn't have to find 6 or 7 books just to write a 3 or 4 page paper. I exceeded my number of pages and my teacher gave me an A on the paper and it brought my grades alot and he told me if I would keep writing papers like that then I would have and A in his class I am glad that I made that grade now I can complete other papers like that and get a higher grade in a class.

George Gissing was a complex person. He was a brilliant pupil destined for great things in London's society, but he threw it all away when he was caught stealing money. He as going to give this money Nell Harrison, a young prostitute with whom he was infatuated. Because of this grave mistake, he went to prison for a short time and then to America where he taught school and wrote short stories for a Chicago newspaper. He eventually returned to England but never rose from the humiliation he suffered when caught stealing.

This humiliation had ramifications on his thoughts about society also. He had two attitudes toward the poor. He sympathized with the "deserving" poor but hated the rest in that he believed poverty corrupted the human soul and any correction of the ill was futile.

The novel, Will Warburton, is about this guilty secret. Warburton runs a grocery store when he loses his money by loaning it to his "friend" who always fails in sudden business ventures. Though Gissing's eyes, Warburton therefore potentially suffers the humiliation of middle class eyes that Gissing himself always feared. Warburton is "just a grocer" and can never rise again above that "class."

Though it is one of Gissing's minor writings, it is a complex novel but an enjoyable one. If you can get a copy, read it for a different view of Victorian life and mores.

George Gissing's 1891 novel, "New Grub Street," is likely one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Certainly, in its descriptions of literary life, be it in publishing, or in my own realm of graduate scholarship, the situations, truths, and lives Gissing portrays are still all too relevant. "New Grub Street" itself points to the timelessness of Gissing's portrayals - as Grub Street was synonymous, even in the eighteenth century with the disrepute of hack writing, and the ignominy of having to make a living by authorship. One of Gissing's primary laments throughout the novel is that the life of the mind is of necessity one which is socially isolating and potentially devastating to any kind of relationships, familial or otherwise. "New Grub Street" gives us a world where friendship is never far from enmity, where love is never far from the most bitter kinds of hatred.

The anti-heroes of "New Grub Street" are presented to us as the novel begins - Jasper Milvain is a young, if somewhat impoverished, but highly ambitious man, eager to be a figure of influence in literary society at whatever cost. His friend, Edwin Reardon, on the other hand, was brought up on the classics, and toils away in obscurity, determined to gain fame and reputation through meaningful, psychological, and strictly literary fiction. Family matters beset the two - Jasper has two younger sisters to look out for, and Edwin has a beautiful and intelligent wife, who has become expectant of Edwin's potential fame. Throw into the mix Miss Marian Yule, daughter of a declining author of criticism, whose own reputation was never fully realized, and who has indentured his daughter to literary servitude, and we have a pretty list of discontented and anxious people struggling in the cut-throat literary marketplace of London.

Money is of supreme importance in "New Grub Street," and it would be pointless to write a review without making note of it. As always, the literary life is one which is not remunerative for the mass of people who engage upon it, and this causes no end of strife in the novel. As Milvain points out, the paradox of making money in the literary world is that one must have a well-known reputation in order to make money from one's labours. At the same time, one must have money in order to move in circles where one's reputation may be made. This is the center of the novel's difficulties - should one or must one sacrifice principles of strictly literary fame and pander to a vulgar audience in order to simply survive? The question is one in which Reardon finds the greatest challenges to his marriage, his self-esteem, and even his very existence. For Jasper Milvain and his sisters, as well as for Alfred and Marian Yule, there is no question that the needs of subsistence outweigh most other considerations.

"New Grub Street" profoundly questions the relevance of classic literature and high culture to the great mass of people, and by proxy, to the nation itself. For England, which propagated its sense of international importance throughout the nineteenth century by encouraging the study of English literature in its colonial holdings, the matter becomes one of great significance. The careers of Miss Dora Milvain and Mr. Whelpdale, easily the novel's two most charming, endearing, and sympathetic characters, attempt to illustrate the ways in which modern literature may be profitable to both the individual who writes it and the audiences towards which they aim. They may be considered the moral centers of the novel, and redeem Gissing's work from being entirely fatalistic.

"New Grub Street" is a novel that will haunt me for quite some time. As a "man of letters" myself, I can only hope that the novel will serve as an object lesson, and one to which I may turn in hope and despair. The novel is well written, its characters and situations drawn in a very realistic and often sympathetic way. Like the ill-fated "ignobly decent" novel of Mr. Biffen's, "Mr. Bailey, Grocer," "New Grub Street" may seem less like a novel, and more like a series of rambling biographical sketches, but they are indelible and lasting sketches of literary lives as they were in the original Grub Street, still yet in Gissing's time, and as they continue to-day. Very highly recommended.

"New Grub Street," published in three volumes in 1891, is George Gissing's grimly realistic exploration of literary life in 1880s London. While it is a remarkably vivid novel, it is also an accurate and detailed depiction of what it was like to be a struggling author in late nineteenth century England, "a society where," as Professor Bernard Bergonzi points out in his introduction, "literature has become a commodity, and where the writing of fiction does not differ radically from any other form of commercial or industrial production."

"New Grub Street" is the contrapuntal narrative of two literary figures, Edwin Reardon, a struggling novelist who aspires to write great literature without regard to its popular appeal, and Jasper Milvain, a self-centered, materialistic striver whose only concern is with achieving financial success and social position by publishing what the mass public wants to read. As Milvain relates early in the novel, succinctly adumbrating the theme that winds through the entirety of "New Grub Street":

"Understand the difference between a man like Reardon and a man like me. He is the old type of unpractical artist; I am the literary man of 1882. He won't make concessions, or rather, he can't make them; he can't supply the market. I-well, you may say that at present I do nothing; but that's a great mistake, I am learning my business. Literature nowadays is a trade. Putting aside men of genius, who may succeed by mere cosmic force, your successful man of letters is your skillful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets. . . . Reardon can't do that kind of thing, he's behind his age; he sells a manuscript as if he lives in Sam Johnson's Grub Street. But our Grub Street of today is quite a different place: it is supplied with telegraphic communication, it knows what literary fare is in demand in every part of the world, its inhabitants are men of business, however seedy."

Gissing brilliantly explores this theme through the lives of his characters, each drawn with stunning depth and verisimilitude. There is, of course, Reardon, whose failure as a novelist and neurasthenic decline destroys his marriage and his life. There is also Reardon's wife, Amy, a woman whose love for Reardon withers with the exsanguination of her husband's creative abilities. While the manipulative and seemingly unfeeling Milvain pursues his crass aspirations, he also encourages his two sisters, Dora and Maud, to seek commercial success as writers of children's books. And intertwining all of their lives are the myriad connections each of the characters has with the Yule family, in particular with the nearly impoverished Alfred Yule, a serious writer and literary critic, and his daughter and literary amanuensis, Marian.

It is Marian--struggling to reconcile the literary demands and expectations of her father with the desire to lead her own life, struggling to escape the claustrophobic world of the literary life--who ultimately, pessimistically challenges the verities of that life while sitting in its physical embodiment, the prison-like British Museum library:

"It was gloomy, and one could scarcely see to read; a taste of fog grew perceptible in the warm, headachy air. . . . She kept asking herself what was the use and purpose of such a life as she was condemned to lead. When already there was more good literature in the world than any individual could cope with in his lifetime, here she was exhausting herself in the manufacture of printed stuff which no one even pretended to be any more than a commodity for the day's market. What unspeakable folly! . . . She herself would throw away her pen with joy but for the need of earning money. . . . This huge library, growing into unwieldiness, threatening to become a trackless desert of print-how intolerably it weighed upon the spirit."

It is Marian, too, who ultimately becomes the romantic victim of Milvain's aspirations, the powerful language of Gissing's anti-romantic subplot twisting into almost gothic excess as he extends the metaphor of London's fog to Marian's sleepless depression:

"The thick black fog penetrated every corner of the house. It could be smelt and tasted. Such an atmosphere produces low spirited languor even in the vigorous and hopeful; to those wasted by suffering it is the very reek of the bottomless pit, poisoning the soul. Her face colorless as the pillow, Marian lay neither sleeping nor awake in blank extremity of woe; tears now and then ran down her cheeks, and at times her body was shaken with a throe such as might result from anguish of the torture chamber."

"New Grub Street" is deservedly regarded not only as Gissing's finest novel, but also as one of the finest novels of late nineteenth century English literature. Grimly realistic in its depiction of what it was like to be a struggling writer in late nineteenth century London, it is also remarkable for its historical accuracy and its literary craftsmanship. If you like the realism of writers like Harding and Zola, then "New Grub Street" is a book you must read!

Five stars was how I rated New Grub Street by George Gissing.
The book is about the publishing industry back in the times of the author. If you are an author, book reviewer, or publisher, you will find this book especially interesting.
The book centers around the trials and tribulations of two budding authors. One treats writing simply as a business, as a means to getting rich and succeeding socially; the other author treats writing as his art, as his means to creativity. We follow the lives of both authors and those around them and those who affect them.
I particularly recommend this book to those involved in the industry. It is well written, has good character development and is a book worth reading. Even for those not particularly interested in the lives of authors, the general philosophy in the book can apply to any endeavor and any industry.

While Born in Exile is certainly a novel, it is actually a study of the spiritual/social upheavals during 1890s Britain. The aristocracy was losing its hold on power in the media, government and the church to the 'radicals', namely the emerging working class in democratic society. The main character in this novel is caught in the crossroads. On the one hand he aspires for the wealth and prestige found in the aristocracy, yet his background is humble and his spiritual beliefs are very modern (eg, he believes in evolution). His disgust of his working-class family and friends drive him to become a country 'gentleman' at all costs ... to the extent of becoming a complete charleton, abusing people's kind graces and forfeiting his own strongly-held religious beliefs. The end result is not entirely predictable.

Born in Exile is a very intense read. It does plod along with excessive philisophical bantering. But the second half does move along at a reasonable pace and, overall, it is a worthy read.

Bottom line: Gissing fans will love Born in Exile. George Gissing newbies should first read New Grub Street, his masterpiece.

George Gissing is not a name most people would recognize as one of the great Victorian novelists.Though always admired by those who experienced his powerful and original work,he never achieved the wide readership that the critically underrated Trollope has,let alone the perennial favorites-the Brontes and Dickens.Even obviously lesser yet talented authors such as Wilkie Collins,Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Marie Corelli are certainly more read today than Gissing.Yet he was best English novelist(along with Thomas Hardy and Robert Louis Stevenson) of the late Victorian era with his unsparing realism and trenchant observations on class and manners filtered through a nervous and uncertain sensibility.His comparative obscurity may be due to the reputation his work has for being depressing(it is not)and his iconoclasm-he was an agnostic maverick whose criticisms of capitalism,religion and sex still will unease those seeking in Victorian literature an escape to simpler,kinder times.What is most remarkable about George Gissing(and sometimes most poignant)is that he had no set philosophy and was himself unable to extract concrete and assuring meanings from life even as he attempted to depict and explicate it."Born in Exile" tells the story of one Godwin Peake,a poor,socially insecure but brilliant college graduate whose yearnings to belong to the "respectable" world clash with his intellectual rejection of its conservatism. Peake,an atheist,shares little sympathy with his poor religious family and is humiliated by the "commoness" of some of his relations' work.Overly sensitive and with only his intelligence to support his pride,Peake happens to be invited to the home of a good natured but popular college hero,whose wealth and breeding expose him to a world he has only dreamed about.Peake there meets his kind studious clergyman father and beautiful graceful sister,and being subjected for the first time to respect,interest and charm,he begins to find himself doing anything to fit in-including initiating a series of lies to mask his radical opinions."Born in Exile" powerfully portrays the complexities of living a double life;its critical yet sympathetic treatment of its protagonist humanely examines the limited and cloudy choices of "this prison called life" and the merciless and clearcut repercussions that entail.In addition,"Born in Exile" is autobiographical-a similiar situation happened to Gissing in reality. George Gissing wrote many great novels in the 1890's-this is an excellent and memorable place(if you are a neophyte )to start. END

John Keahey has written a lovely little travelog of his attempt to follow in the footsteps of George Gissing and explore a seldom visited (by Americans) part of Italy's boot, the heel, arch and toe. Gissing was a writer-comtemporary of H.G. Wells and Conan Doyle, and though he is not as well known today as Wells and Doyle, he was considered an important author in his own time. Like Henry James and Edith Warton and other Anglos from America and England, Gissing traveled though Italy and recorded what he experienced.

Keahey should probably be compared to PILLARS OF HERCULES author Paul Theroux as he writes currently, and has covered a part of the Mediterranean Theroux passed through and wrote about. Theroux wrote a copious and much longer book (and I recommend it to anyone interested in the Mediterranean), and has a more pragmatic and sceptical outlook. Keahey has written a short, sweet, and romantic book about a place he seems genuinely fond of and not terribly familiar with, but willing to learn about. I suppose if one is reading before bedtime, Keahey's book may be more enjoyable, but Theroux's book may be closer to the truth.

Keahey's book is a diary of his travels and therefore a bit limited (Theroux actually links up with individuals living in various places and queries them about the local history, etc.). He also seems more focused on the Greek heritage of the area than the Phoenician, Roman, Norman, or Turkish, though he does make reference to Spartacus in one section. A number of decisive battles were fought in the lower part of the boot, particularly by the Romans, and those battles and much other history is overlooked, but Keahey essentially suceeds in doing what he set out to do, recreate Gissing's trip and see the sights he saw 100 years earlier.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mr. Keahey was able to transport me to southern Italy and allow me to view with him the sites visited by George Gissing more than 100 years before. I loved the descriptions of the countryside and the people. I could almost see them myself and now I really want to. From my travels in Europe, I could relate to Mr. Keahey's descriptions of problems that he experienced as well as the joys of the trip. I hope he goes on more journeys and shares those with us.

A cheerful good nature pervades this book, in contrast to the misanthropic (but highly readable) Paul Theroux. It's heart-warming and interesting to read the acknowledgements at the end. (But then who knows? Maybe Paul Theroux in real life is a nice man and John Keahey a bad-tempered curmudgeon.) Sometimes the writing is careless, with "like" instead of "as if" (or am I pedantic to object to that) and with repetitions such the story of Hannibal's massacre of his mercenaries and the changes of name of Crotona. He is nothing like as erudite as Gissing or Norman Douglas, or at least he is more modest about his knowledge, so that you have the feeling of learning about Italian history and English literature along with him as you read. Those older writers expected you to know already about Cassiodorus and the Sybarites. In spite of his disarming modesty I still think he should have found out the names of the plants he saw. "Yellow flowers" is not good enough. For [the price]we should get some more research.
The photographs are black and whites squeezed into half and quarter pages.
It's a combination of biography of George Gissing, travelogue, and history of Southern Italy. The descripion of Naples (the only place in the book I have visited) is good but a little superfluous if you're reading this before a trip to Italy because there is already so much good writing about Naples. More valuable for the intending traveller are his descriptions of such places as Paola, Cosenza, Reggio, Taranto, Metaponte, Copia/Sybaris, Crotone, Catanzaro, and Squillace.

I a teacher of gifted elementary students and currently working on a graduate degree. I use this book to help with the design and implementation of my own program as well as offer guidelines and background information for other teachers I work with. Too often, there are not enough advocates for gifted learners for whatever reasons and this book allows me to give research to support my positions. This book provides profiles of different types of learners (i.e.female, economically challenged, children with disabilities, etc.)as well as how to deal with such learners. It also provides the reader with positive teaching techniques that can be used in the classroom.

Eve's Ransom is a short (125 pages) novel concerning the efforts of a young man to, in effect, buy the affection of a mysterious young woman. Actually, he really is just trying to help "a friend in need". But the young woman leads him on, accepts his money, and in the end ... well, you know how these things turn out.
Yes, the story is simple. However any material from George Gissing is an interesting read, especially for those interested in the more social aspects of Victorian society. Money and greed are also common themes, and Mr. Gissing makes keen observations in these areas that are true even today.

Eve's Ransom is a must read for George Gissing fans. For those who have not read any of George Gissing's novels I recommend first reading New Grub Street. It is unfortunate Eve's Ransom is no longer printed. No, it's not George Gissing's best novel. But it is still a worthy read.

Finally for those who like the "man falls in love with Ms. Wrong"-type of novels, especially those set in Victorian England, I recommend reading Basil by Wilkie Collins.