Reardon’s reminiscence about the sunset in Athens and his complaint about the “public school-men, University men, club men, society men”: had he been born with money, at least he could be a rich mediocre writer. To be a poor writer of mediocre quality is rather a tragedy.
“Again and again work-girls have said to me: ‘Oh, I don’t like that book; it’s nothing but real life.’”
This reminds me of a conversation years ago with a high-school classmate, when I first began publishing in English. He said, “But do you know how to write about the rich and the aristocratic? No, then you’ll never become a real writer!”
Reardon, upon learning Amy’s of inheritance:
“Ah! if this had happened in the first year of his marriage, what more blessed man than he would have walked the earth!”
OMG. I really have very little respect for Reardon, whose meager imagination not only makes him a terrible fiction writer but also a terrible reader of life.
Join us on December 13 for a virtual discussion of New Grub Street with Yiyun Li.
I feel that so much of who we are and the choices wemake are a culmination of our birth, upbringing and life events. Amy has said “I can’t help the way I feel” and I believe that and it is true for all the characters. I understand individual responsibility but am conflicted regarding how much free will we actually have. Everyone is coping with the hands they are dealt and Gissing captures this so well. I think the various reader responses probably reflect our own pasts. This really is a social study on human behavior.
My soft spot for Biffen continues. Biffen's ironic realism, layered with his natural dignity, captured my heart, and made me want to weep simultaneously: “I don’t think I should be unhappy in the workhouse. I should have a certain satisfaction in the thought that I had forced society to support me. And then the absolute freedom from care! Why it’s very much the same as being a man of independent fortune."
My appreciation for Gissing's skill in creating complex characters that compel a reader to grapple with the shaping of a humane society, while living with dignity in an imperfect one increases daily.