And at the core of The Nether World is an inheritance. An elderly gentleman, Michael Snowden, returns to London a wealthy man. One of his sons passed away and left Michael a fortune in his will. But Michael's attitude towards money is not what you would expect. It doesn't mean much to him. Michael is more interested in using the money to help the poor in the little time he has left in his life.
Michael also has a granddaughter Jane who he has never met. Jane is the daughter of his other son, Joseph Snowden, and Joseph is a disreputable character abandoning his young daughter Jane to the care of Mrs Peckover and her daughter Clem who abuse poor Jane and treat her as a servant. Michael returning to London is able to rescue Jane and has plans to leave her the bulk of his fortune in the hope that she will use it to help the poor.
Joseph Snowden gets wind of this and promptly returns to London to reconnect with his daughter Jane but she is a young woman now and has plans to marry Sidney Kirkwood who is a good man and loves her. Joseph cannot let this happen since Jane and Sidney are set to inherit all of his father's money.
In addition to the Snowdens we have the Hewett family. Their struggles involve a separate storyline which is no less fascinating. And for me the most tragic character in The Nether World is Clara Hewett. She is young, attractive and ambitious. Raised in a very poor family she runs away at age 17 with the hope of becoming a famous actress.
And Clara has talent and beauty. But halfway through this novel after landing the leading role in a play a jealous rival does something so vicious to Clara that it shocked me and this does seem to be a theme that runs through The Nether World. Poverty with no hope for the future ends up in tragedy for some of the characters in this book. Others turn to criminality and cruelty and a few like Jane Snowden and Sidney Kirkwood are able to keep their humanity and kindness. But SPOILER ALERT no one gets a happy ending.
And yet I still recommend The Nether World. It's an excellent novel and George Gissing who is not as well known as he should be is such a talented and quintessential late Victorian author. And I won't go into it here but George Gissing had a life that was a Victorian novel in itself. The man knew his territory.
Sounds quite bleak! Now I'm curious of Gissing's Victorian life. I have not read him but when I do I'll try the others you mention first. It's impressive you're working your way through his books. Is he better than Dickens?
ReplyDeleteHe's very similar to Dickens particularly in The Nether World where they cover the same territory, the working class and the poor but I have read two books by Dickens and I prefer Gissing. And I will be going on to another Gissing novel next year.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound bleak but then life was like that for the poor in Victorian times. I haven't read anything by Gissing but have him listed as an author I want to try next year. I'll heed your warning though and start with something else. I have a feeling that I downloaded the free version of The Odd Women to my Kindle, probably saw it talked about on Katie Lumsden's channel. Excellent review, Kathy.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cath and The Odd Women is a great book to start with. Katie Lumsden is a fan of George Gissing. Agree, the situation for the poor was bad in Victorian times and the 19th century everywhere. There was no safety net, unemployment insurance, pension etc. You were on your own.
ReplyDeleteMoney and inheritances always turn people to the dark side in books like this. I really loved Gissing's The Odd Women, but haven't read any of his other books. Mostly because my library doesn't have any. But I should put him on my list of classic authors I want to read next year. Maybe not this one, but I'd really like to read New Grubb Street. :D
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, I think you will like New Grub Street. In fact I thought it was even better than The Odd Women which I also loved. And agree inheritance is a big issue in so many Victorian novels
DeleteYour comments about Gissing make me this of Zola...anyway, I am going to start with The Odd Women. I read the blurb on that and it appealed to me. Thanks for another Gissing review.
ReplyDeleteThe Odd Women is a very good place to start with Gissing. It's a novel ahead of its time.
DeleteThe book sounds very interesting but it must also be longish. I will look into the other books you recommend by him.
ReplyDeleteIt is rather long. I would start with The Odd Women which I really enjoyed.
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