New Grub Street by George Gissing: Day 26
Chapter 26
Amy is becoming more and more interesting. She reads Balzac instead of the silly novels with unrealistic love stories; she thinks about literature and its future; she gathers information from all sorts of channels. She is ahead of her time. I always imagine her as an agent or a publisher in our contemporary life.
“Love is the most insignificant thing in most women’s lives.”
Amy is not wrong. In a sense, she is Shakespeare’s Rosalind in the 1880s: levelheaded, sharp-eyed, and yet much less willing to dream than Rosalind.
“Of course I have no choice really. And I ought to have a choice.”
That’s a major key statement from Amy. One has to admire her, however unwillingly.
Join us on December 13 for a virtual discussion of New Grub Street with Yiyun Li.
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“A poor four hundred a year, perhaps; mere decency of obscure existence, unless her husband could glorify it by winning fame.”
So it’s fame and fortune for Amy. But not love. “what silly nonsense it is! Why don’t people write about the really important things of life?”
I want Marion to swoop in and ask her “What do you understand by love?”
Some couples simply grow in different directions, especially when they marry young. Amy has developed her own intellectual and political interests. Divorce is still hard today, esp when it’s no fault and there are children. The characterization of Amy is ahead of its time.
Biffen and Whelpdale are great minor characters. They are the poor artists who stick to their writing in spite of hardships, even if Whelpdale has to sell writing manuals. Gissing has them popping up frequently. They actually would not do much better today, but in some states could get Obamacare.
Amy and Jasper’s chance encounter is not a chance meeting on Gissing’s part. So much is said here. Amy gets Jasper in a way even he doesn’t see. Does Jasper begin to question his decision?