The Nether World (Oxford World's Classics)

The Nether World (1889) is generally regarded as the finest of Gissing's early novels. A fast-moving story of highly dramatic, sometimes violent scenes, it depicts life amongst the artisans, factory-girls, and slum-dwellers of Clerkenwell in the 1870s. But this is not just a novel of documentary realism. It is one man's mordant vision—shaped by bitter personal experience of poverty—of the quality of life endured by a variety of characters in the nether world. With Zolaesque intensity and relentlessness, Gissing lays bare the economic forces which determine the aspirations and expectations of those born to a life of labour.

Key Themes:

• Intrigue and Scheming: A tale of rapacious schemers trying to wrest a fortune out of a mysterious old man who has returned to their midst.
• Thwarted Love: A narrative devoid of sentimentality, where love is often obstructed by harsh realities.
• Struggle for Survival: A world where the strong exercise power against their own kind, scheming and struggling for mere survival.

This is a bleak portrayal of a world from which, Gissing maintains, there can be no escape.

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