George Gissing

The Odd Women (1893) is a novel by George Gissing. Inspired by a report of over one million more women living in Britain than men, Gissing sought to explore the societal and personal implications of unmarried life while exploring the demands of the growing feminist movement. The Odd Women is a story of romance, independence, and the pressures of society that poses important questions about convention in Victorian England while proving surprisingly...

An exploration of the class struggle in nineteenth century London where a potential inheritance turns family and friends into desperate foes eager to escape their circumstance. A compelling story about greed, deception and the innate need to survive. Michael Snowdon lives like a pauper despite inheriting a massive fortune. He plans to leave his money to Jane, his neglected granddaughter, in hopes that she will spend it on charitable causes. Yet, Michael's...

Tomorrow I shall leave by the Messina boat, which calls at Paola. It is now more than a twelvemonth since I began to think of Paola, and an image of the place has grown in my mind. I picture a little marina; a yellowish little town just above; and behind, rising grandly, the long range of mountains which guard the shore of Calabria. Paola has no special interest that I know of, but it is the nearest point on the coast to Cosenza, which has interest...

The author of New Grub Street turns to farce in this 1898 novel, one of his most popular during his lifetime. Our hero, Gammon, tangles with his landlady Mrs. Bubb, the shady detective Greenacre, the bigamous Lord Polperro, and young Polly Sparkes, caught up in a rollicking chase about London on New Year's Eve.

Eve Madeley, a highly educated but poor bookkeeper, arouses the interest of Maurice Hilliard, an architect and inventor, who tries to sweep her off her feet. Though he's hardly better off financially then she, he persuades her to accompany him to Paris. Considered one of Gissing's best, this 1895 novel explores money and marriage with unusual honesty and realism.

A love story, The Crown of Life was inspired by writer George Gissing's feelings for the young author Gabrielle Marie Edith Fleury, whom he met in 1898 while he was estranged from his wife Edith. Rich in detail, the narrative ends on an optimistic note-namely that happiness is possible.

"Our Friend the Charlatan" is a 1901 novel by British novelist George Gissing. The story follows Dice Lashmore, a man who will do anything he can to get rich. However, it seems to him that the most obvious thing he could do to that end would be to find a rich wife. A thought-provoking chronicle of his various attempts at courtship and eventual moral decline, "Our Friend the Charlatan" is not to be missed by fans and collectors of Gissing's seminal...

Compiled in one book, the essential collection of books by George Gissing: Born in Exile, By the Ionian Sea, The Crown of Life, Demos, The Emancipated, Eve's Ransom, The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories, In the Year of Jubilee, A Life's Morning, The Nether World, New Grub Street, The Odd Women, Our Friend the Charlatan, The Paying Guest, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, The Town Traveller, Veranilda, and The Whirlpool.

The love story is not an unrequited romance - the two lovers are aware of their feelings for each other - as much as it is an unrewarded one, for the plot revolves around keeping the two from each other, as Veranilda becomes a pawn between the competing courts of Justinian and Totila. The story of Veranilda takes place during the time of the Gothic King Totila's advance on Naples and Rome.

The Mumfords are a middle-class couple, living in suburban Sutton on the outskirts of London with their young son. Reading the newspaper, they become aware of a young woman seeking a place as a "paying guest," or lodger. To supplement their income they decide to take a tenant, named Louise Derrick, who is in need of a place to live due to disagreements with her immediate family. Louise, who is poorly educated and bad-tempered, is being romantically...