“The bitterness of his lot was that this world might be a sufficing paradise to him if only he could clutch a poor little share of current coin.”
Gissing at his sharpest. Dickens writes about poverty too but with more mercy than Gissing.
“Put an advertisement in the newspapers to that effect, if you like—as men do about their wives’ debts.”
One such example, from 1820: Peter Hepburn stating that his wife Hannah was “now living separate from me” so he would not honor any future debts contracted by her.
Offering an explanation for her shame, Amy states: “I can’t help my nature.” I find that a very lucid and strong sentiment.
Join us on December 13 for a virtual discussion of New Grub Street with Yiyun Li.
I wonder how much influence Amy's mother has. She's off in the shadows, as is Willie, but I would hope that they are more on the Reardons's mind. No person is an island, after all, even poor Biffen, who the novel says could disappear with no one to mind. The jealousy that Reardon feels toward Biffen is believable, but he seems to be imputing his own lack of power in his own relationships into Biffen's life. If Reardon was in a better place (mentally, financially, socially) he would know that it's impossible to believe that anyone is completely alone. He's in need of maternal comfort (not Homer or Shakespeare) that he's really not getting, and I'm inclined to either blame Amy or her mother. As I learned in a Henry James course, of all places, follow the money trail.
The events of this chapter exceeded my expectations of the title ("The Parting"). Edwin was leaping off of ledges - first in his spontaneous decision during his conversation with Carter - "A minute more of pause, and he could not have faced the humiliation. His face burned, his tongue was parched."
And with Amy, much more and sustained effort was required to step off the ledge - "... in a man to whom such self-assertion is a matter of conscious effort, tremor of the nerves will always interfere with the line of conduct he has conceived in advance." Edwin hung in there, But Amy "... glared like the animal that defends itself with tooth and claw."
I was dubious of the vacation method of rejuvenating Edwin's writing career, but frankly didn't expect Amy's "I am certainly not the wife of a clerk who is paid so much a week."