The Jubilee marks the fiftieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria. Dickensian in its sweeping scope of London life, Gissing’s "In the Year of the Jubilee" (1834) depicts the...

First published in 1893, ‘The Odd Women’ by Victorian author George Gissing revolves around the themes of feminism, marriage, and love through the lives of several contrasting...

Before he was 21 George Gissing 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...

A sudden inheritance transforms a socialist laborer into a capitalist landlord, exposing the rot beneath his lofty ideals. As his personal life fractures, the violent...

A governess is thrown into a whirlwind of indecision when a wealthy man offers her a hand in marriage, challenging the class boundaries of her world. The story is a delicate,...

A beautiful, working-class dreamer becomes the focal point of a tragic conflict between high-minded idealism and the cold reality of social status. Her purity of spirit inspires...

A charismatic charlatan uses a superficial grasp of philosophy to manipulate his way into the hearts and pockets of the elite. His meteoric rise is fueled by the vanity of those...

A young writer rejects the stifling conventions of his class to live among the social pariahs of the city, seeking a more authentic existence. His love for a fallen woman...

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 Madden sisters struggle to maintain a veneer of respectability while facing the grim economic reality of being unmarried in a shifting London. Amidst the hollow celebrations...