New Grub Street

Book excerpt: New Grub Street: Large Print by George Gissing For many readers New Grub Street is Gissing's masterpiece. If this is not accepted, it remains beyond doubt one of his most interesting and most powerful novels. As a realistic picture of the literary in late Victorian England, New Grub Street has few rivals. There is much of Gissing himself, his idealism, pride, impracticality, in Edwin Reardon the study of the creative artist oppressed by poverty bears the stamp of bitter experience. Of the other characters, pedantic Alfred Yule, the humble scholar Biffen, ambitious and worldly Jasper Milvain are still recognizable literary types. New Grub Street is a sombre and moving story, cynical in its conclusions, but deriving from its close observation and deep integrity a lasting importance for students of character and period.