George Robert Gissing (22 November 1857 - 28 December 1903) was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880. His best known novels, which are published in modern editions, include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), and The Odd Women (1893). Early life: Gissing was born on 22 November 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, the eldest of five children of Thomas Waller Gissing, who ran a chemist's shop, and Margaret nee Bedford. His siblings were:...

Miriam Baske, a young widow, leaves behind the gray stone chapels and flinty hearts of Lancashire for the sun and artistic splendor of Italy -- where she meets a host of her countrymen doing the Grand Tour. To Miriam's surprise, the English abroad are a different breed from those back home: in the bay of Naples, passion rules over reason. But will life change when they return to their own hearthsides? Reminiscent of George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Emancipated tells us as much about Victorian society -- with all its prejudices and rigid conventions -- as it does about one's woman's growth to...

The Nether World (1889) is a novel written by the English author George Gissing. The plot concerns several poor families living in the slums of 19th century London. Rich in naturalistic detail, the novel concentrates on the individual problems and hardships which result from the typical shortages experienced by the lower classes - want of money, employment and decent living conditions. The Nether World is pessimistic and concerns exclusively the lives of poor people: there is no juxtaposition with the world of the rich.

It is a collection of semi-autobiographical essays. The author, using the name of Ryecroft, expressed his own feeling and analyzed his own inner world.The book is composed of four parts: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.