“Amy had shown more wisdom, though in a spirit of unkindness.”
Reardon keeps complaining that Amy is not the “ideal wife” with “brave tenderness,” which nearly asks for an unkind emoji here. One rather likes to see him being confronted by Amy’s unsentimental wisdom.
With Dickens's protagonists, falling into hard times or misery often gives hope of rising again. There is no redemption or hope for Reardon.
So many people wanted to be writers; so few could support themselves and their families with writing. This reality has not changed. The question remains then: what’s so alluring about this profession?
Join us on December 13 for a virtual discussion of New Grub Street with Yiyun Li.
“. . . losing money, he had lost everything.”“Foolish idealist! Love is one of the first things to be frightened away by poverty.” As Yiyun said, the couple here had lost more than money—they no longer had hope. (But I’m still remembering last chapter’s discussion of laundry. Hope would be hard to sustain wearing dirty underwear 😢)
"His own fault. A man has no business to fail; least of all can he expect others to have time to look back upon him or pity him if he sink under the stress of conflict. Those behind will trample over his body; they can't help it; they themselves are borne onwards by resistless pressure."
Well said, though self-pitying, but this depends on the arena one chooses to compete in. Indeed, Amy is not insisting only that he remain a writer: "If you seriously abandon all further hope from literature, I think it is your duty to make every effort to obtain a position suitable to a man of your education.—AMY REARDON.' I am with Yuyun Li: "One rather likes to see him being confronted by Amy’s unsentimental wisdom." Every culture has its imperatives. At times, it may be that the able bodied fight in a war.
At this time and place it's that Edwin earn enough to support himself and his dependents. He did the right thing by committing to send what support he could afford to Amy snd his son. Amy did the right thing to accept it.