Once upon a time - a few centuries ago - "Grub Street" was an enclave in London, on the fringes of the publishing industry. Amid the coffeehouses and cheap lodgings, wannabe writers congregated...some to starve in garrets, some to hack (eek!) out a living, and one or two, like Pope and Johnson, to find fame.

Fast forward to the late 1880s. "New" Grub Street is George Gissing's contemporary rendering of the Darwinisms of the same industry - and of marriage. True to life, and almost a roman a clef.

In fact, you might skip all the way forward to the 21st Century, and channel hop through episodes of Survivor, The Bachelor, and The Apprentice, to get a flavor of the plot lines of New Grub Street.

Jasper Milvain is an ambitious young journalist, of limited finances, with an eye for women's bottoms...bottom lines. He is responsible for the success of himself and his two younger sisters. As he readily, too readily, admits, he'll marry for money, if that's what it takes to further his career, even if he has to wait til he's fifty. He's tripped up a bit, however, by his admiration and attraction for Marian Yule, who lacks, only, money.

Edwin Reardon is all "ars gratia artis". He refuses to feel comfortable writing merely for lucre. But he's burdened by a young son, and worse, a wife who married him, in large part, for his snob appeal as a serious artist. Overwhelmed by the pressure for product, his imagination falters and he's challenged to try his hand at pulp.

Toss in a circle of literary friends and fringe authors, and the Yule family (which holds out the hope of emotional and financial rescue)...you now have a crackling fire in the fine bones of a Victorian mansion. Can Masterpiece Theatre be far behind?

As it was then, is now, and shall ever after be...where there's a will, there's a way...if the estate has a friendly executor!. ( )

Excellent treatment of literary survival in Gissing's London. ( )

A bit of a slow start, which felt like a bulking-out of the script rather than any careful groundwork, and a self pitying protagonist, not of much help to generate any strong affinity, yet Gissing, with simple devices, obvious turns and straightforward logic, seems to win through in this description of the troubled life of the late victorian novelist. Radio 4's comedy series on Ed Reardon, a struggling author/hack of today, is so much the better after this! ( )

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/a... ( )

Tale of modern life & new journalism. The strivers get ahead, the truly talented & idealistic fall by the wayside. It is a lot of fun to read.

http://hansel25.livejournal.com/18224... ( )

Infinitely depressing and realistic account of writers trying to make ends meet. Excellent in its bleakness but not a fun read ( )

Man, this book is powerful and emotional. It sucks you in and drags you into the depths of this agonizing world. I absolutely loved it and I will get around to reading it again someday. I hope. ( )

Conventional wisdom describes the Victorian era as a golden age of literature, when novelists such as Dickens and Eliot could produce work that was both lasting and lucrative, work that intelligently plumbed the depths of human character and entertainingly splashed in the shallows of high society. Those who love the triple-decker masterpieces of this era may well enjoy this briefer work that illuminates the conditions under which those masters labored. Gissing's juxtaposed tales of success and failure are an excellent reminder of the ways in which his time was much like our own; then, as now, glibness and topicality paid the rent better than integrity and truth. His characters, like us but unlike most literary figures, think daily about their economic constraints and possibilities. By the end of "New Grub Street," we know all too well the price art exacts on the heart and on the pocketbook. Gissing's view may focus on the rougher side of his profession, but the flaws his harsh light exposes on the Victorian antiques make them seem all the more human and all the more valuable. ( )