This is a brilliant novel and George Gissing deserves more credit. He should be as famous as Dickens or Eliot. As the title suggests it is about the working class, set in Clerkenwell which was, in the Victorian era,one of the most deprived areas of London.
Gissing came from a middle-class background and this shows, but his life was a difficult one and he experienced poverty at first hand. There are many characters, all strongly drawn and if some tend to be a little grotesque, this reflects the horror of their surroundings.
Gissing sets up expectations only to destroy them, and the more heroic characters are eventually crushed by their baser neighbours. Unlike other social realists of the period, Gissing had little faith in either religion or philanthropy, and in this he resembles his French contemporary, Emile Zola. '
The Nether World' also seems to anticipate later works such as Hardy's Jude The Obscure. It is a long book and may seem a bit slow at first, the style is very much of its time - but Gissing was a truly gifted writer, and his bleak vision will ultimately take your breath away.
( Source : Internet)
( Image : Amazon )
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