ABSTRACT
Now that everybody is reading The Whirlpool, it may be hoped that interest in a book of George Gissing's which has never been fully appreciated will be speedily revived. New Grub Street, in fact, has not been published in this country at all, we believe, and while some of the author's books are well known in America, this production, which is one ofgreat power and originality, is practically a dead letter. Mr Gissing has never written a better book than this. Dreary it is, to a heart-rending extent, and this may account for its never having achieved any popularity, but by this time the world has grown accustomed to the tragic note. Ifpeople can enjoy being harrowed by Quo Vadis we do not see why they cannot enjoy a book like New Grub Street. Suppose the glamour of the past is missing, and that the author shows no taste for the glamour of the present. At least he pierces to the core ofhuman things, at least he reveals the keenest understanding of the griefs which shake commonplace souls, and somehow his sombre, even pessimistic book leaves the mind strengthened, for it paints right and wrong in their true relations, exposes the shabbiness of small souls and points out the chances offered to those who are capable of rising to better things. We have never found George Gissing a novelist of charm. He works with too hard and too gloomy a pen. But he is a writer ofindubitable power, his sincerity is unquestionable,
and, dreary though he may be, he nevertheless works out of a highminded and stimulating enthusiasnl. New Grub Street has the further attraction, we may add, of painting to the life those mediocre figures who have figured so conspicuously in the literary life of Victorian London, especially during the last twenty years or so. Mr Gissing has seen through his models with wonderful clearness. Their pettiness, their ignorance, their unspeakable pretence and vulgarity he has painted once and for all. Quite aside from its significance as a study of human nature pure and simple, this is a brilliant book. It gives an irresistible portrait ofa class. The American publishers of The Whirlpool might do worse than reprint New Grub Street in a single-volume edition.
