New Grub Street by George Gissing (best mobile ebook reader .txt) ๐
Description
Grub Street is the name of a former street in London synonymous with pulp writers and low-quality publishers. New Grub Street takes its name from that old street, as it follows the lives and endeavors of a group of writers active in the literary scene of 1880s London.
Edwin Reardon is a quiet and intelligent writer whose artistic sensibilities are the opposite of what the London public wants to read. Heโs forced to write long, joyless novels that he thinks pop publishers will want to buy. These novels are draining to write, yet result in meager sales; soon Edwinโs increasingly small bank account, and his stubborn pride, start to put a strain on his once-happy marriage.
His best friend, Biffen, lies to one side of Edwinโs nature: as another highly-educated writer, he accepts a dingy, lonely, and hungry life of abject poverty in exchange for being able to produce a novel thatโs true to his artistic desires but is unlikely to sell. On the other side lies Jasper Milvain, an โalarmingly modernโ writer laser-focused on earning as much money as possible no matter what heโs made to write, as he floats through the same literary circles that Edwin haunts.
The intricately-told tale follows these writers as their differing outlooks and their fluctuating ranks in society affect them and the people around them. Gissing, himself a prolific writer intimately familiar with the London literary scene, draws from his own life in laying out the characters and events in the novel. He carefully elaborates the fragile social fabric of the literary world, its paupers and its barons both equal in the industry but unequal in public life. Though the novel is about writers on the face, the deep thread that runs through it all is the brutality of the modern social structure, where the greedy and superficial are rewarded with stability and riches, while the delicate and thoughtful are condemned to live on the margins of respectable society in grimy poverty, robbed not only of dignity, but of love.
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- Author: George Gissing
Read book online ยซNew Grub Street by George Gissing (best mobile ebook reader .txt) ๐ยป. Author - George Gissing
โI will let you know by letter in a few days.โ
It seemed impossible to her to say she would return, yet a refusal to do so involved nothing less than separation for the rest of their lives. Postponement of decision was her only resource.
โI must know at once,โ said Reardon.
โI canโt answer at once.โ
โIf you donโt, I shall understand you to mean that you refuse to come to me. You know the circumstances; there is no reason why you should consult with anyone else. You can answer me immediately if you will.โ
โI donโt wish to answer you immediately,โ Amy replied, paling slightly.
โThen that decides it. When I leave you we are strangers to each other.โ
Amy made a rapid study of his countenance. She had never entertained for a moment the supposition that his wits were unsettled, but none the less the constant recurrence of that idea in her motherโs talk had subtly influenced her against her husband. It had confirmed her in thinking that his behaviour was inexcusable. And now it seemed to her that anyone might be justified in holding him demented, so reckless was his utterance.
It was difficult to know him as the man who had loved her so devotedly, who was incapable of an unkind word or look.
โIf that is what you prefer,โ she said, โthere must be a formal separation. I canโt trust my future to your caprice.โ
โYou mean it must be put into the hands of a lawyer?โ
โYes, I do.โ
โThat will be the best, no doubt.โ
โVery well; I will speak with my friends about it.โ
โYour friends!โ he exclaimed bitterly. โBut for those friends of yours, this would never have happened. I wish you had been alone in the world and penniless.โ
โA kind wish, all things considered.โ
โYes, it is a kind wish. Then your marriage with me would have been binding; you would have known that my lot was yours, and the knowledge would have helped your weakness. I begin to see how much right there is on the side of those people who would keep women in subjection. You have been allowed to act with independence, and the result is that you have ruined my life and debased your own. If I had been strong enough to treat you as a child, and bid you follow me wherever my own fortunes led, it would have been as much better for you as for me. I was weak, and I suffer as all weak people do.โ
โYou think it was my duty to share such a home as you have at present?โ
โYou know it was. And if the choice had lain between that and earning your own livelihood you would have thought that even such a poor home might be made tolerable. There were possibilities in you of better things than will ever come out now.โ
There followed a silence. Amy sat with her eyes gloomily fixed on the carpet; Reardon looked about the room, but saw nothing. He had thrown his hat into a chair, and his fingers worked nervously together behind his back.
โWill you tell me,โ he said at length, โhow your position is regarded by these friends of yours? I donโt mean your mother and brother, but the people who come to this house.โ
โI have not asked such people for their opinion.โ
โStill, I suppose some sort of explanation has been necessary in your intercourse with them. How have you represented your relations with me?โ
โI canโt see that that concerns you.โ
โIn a manner it does. Certainly it matters very little to me how I am thought of by people of this kind, but one doesnโt like to be reviled without cause. Have you allowed it to be supposed that I have made life with me intolerable for you?โ
โNo, I have not. You insult me by asking the question, but as you donโt seem to understand feelings of that kind I may as well answer you simply.โ
โThen have you told them the truth? That I became so poor you couldnโt live with me?โ
โI have never said that in so many words, but no doubt it is understood. It must be known also that you refused to take the step which might have helped you out of your difficulties.โ
โWhat step?โ
She reminded him of his intention to spend half a year in working at the seaside.
โI had utterly forgotten it,โ he returned with a mocking laugh. โThat shows how ridiculous such a thing would have been.โ
โYou are doing no literary work at all?โ Amy asked.
โDo you imagine that I have the peace of mind necessary for anything of that sort?โ
This was in a changed voice. It reminded her so strongly of her husband before his disasters that she could not frame a reply.
โDo you think I am able to occupy myself with the affairs of imaginary people?โ
โI didnโt necessarily mean fiction.โ
โThat I can forget myself, then, in the study of literature?โ โI wonder whether you really think of me like that. How, in Heavenโs name, do you suppose I spend my leisure time?โ
She made no answer.
โDo you think I take this calamity as light-heartedly as you do, Amy?โ
โI am far from taking it light-heartedly.โ
โYet you are in good health. I see no sign that you have suffered.โ
She kept silence. Her suffering had been slight enough, and chiefly due to considerations of social propriety; but she would not avow this, and did not like to make admission of it to herself. Before her friends she frequently affected to conceal a profound sorrow; but so long as her child was left to her she was in no danger of falling a victim to sentimental troubles.
โAnd certainly I canโt believe it,โ he continued, โnow you declare your wish to be formally separated from me.โ
โI have declared no such wish.โ
โIndeed you have. If you can hesitate a moment about returning to me when difficulties are at an end, that tells me you would prefer final separation.โ
โI hesitate for this reason,โ Amy said after reflecting. โYou
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