Difference between revisions of "New Grub Street (Gissing, 1891)"
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(Created page with "Gissing, George. New Grub Street. Pub. 1891. Ed. Katherine Mullin. Oxford World's Classics, 2016. * pub 3 volumes 1891 by Smith, Elder =Notes= *starts 1882, and this tempor...") |
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=Notes= | =Notes= | ||
*starts 1882, and this temporal fixity is key | *starts 1882, and this temporal fixity is key | ||
| + | *interesting to refract Reardon through Milvain at the start | ||
*10 milvains bourgeois (but not too comfortable) | *10 milvains bourgeois (but not too comfortable) | ||
*13 a distinct meritocratic strain to milvain's bourgeois perspective, "we people of brains" | *13 a distinct meritocratic strain to milvain's bourgeois perspective, "we people of brains" | ||
| Line 10: | Line 11: | ||
* the Yules are "dwellers in the valley of the shadow of Books" | * the Yules are "dwellers in the valley of the shadow of Books" | ||
** 18 this jasper says specifically means BM Reading Room | ** 18 this jasper says specifically means BM Reading Room | ||
| + | *29 striking description of jasper and Marian watching the train pass from a bridge | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
==Themes== | ==Themes== | ||
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
*12 market for children's fiction and religious stories | *12 market for children's fiction and religious stories | ||
*22 Yule presents an anti "spreading civilization" arg about literary trade, in line with moral concerns about novel reading | *22 Yule presents an anti "spreading civilization" arg about literary trade, in line with moral concerns about novel reading | ||
| + | *25 Marian misquotes [[Alfred Tennyson]] about ash trees (from Princess not Idylls) | ||
| + | *27 Reardon distinct from "ordinary circulating novel" (i.e. mudie's cf [[Cambridge History of Libraries]] et al) | ||
| + | *35 Yule's mind "a literary cyclopedia" | ||
| + | *49 Amy advises Edwin to write stories, which are becoming more popular in periodicals | ||
===Authorship=== | ===Authorship=== | ||
| Line 24: | Line 28: | ||
** vs "unpractical artist" | ** vs "unpractical artist" | ||
** cont on 12: a decisively anti romantic view (he as much as says "we can't all be George Eliot") | ** cont on 12: a decisively anti romantic view (he as much as says "we can't all be George Eliot") | ||
| − | * 21 John Yule calls literary profession "pernicious," reminiscent of [[Pendennis (Thackeray, | + | ** Amy echoes on 46, "this is the age of trade" (while it's true there were socioeconomic shifts there had been tradesman novelists, Trollope or even Reynolds, in previous generations) |
| + | * 21 John Yule calls literary profession "pernicious," reminiscent of [[Pendennis (Thackeray, 1850)]] | ||
| + | *27 "Men won't succeed in literature that they may get into society, but will get into society that they may succeed in literature" | ||
| + | ** reverse of, say, Dickens (less so Thackeray or Bulwer) | ||
| + | *44 Reardon's "morbid conscientiousness" (amy's words) that keep him in writer's block | ||
===Journalism/periodicals=== | ===Journalism/periodicals=== | ||
*8-9 milvain associated "magazines and newspapers and foreign publishers" with the market, with which a successful writer of 1882 must associate himself | *8-9 milvain associated "magazines and newspapers and foreign publishers" with the market, with which a successful writer of 1882 must associate himself | ||
| − | *20 Yule mentions the same periodical reviewing the same novel twice, good and bad (note says this happened to NGS in Saturday Review) -- a bookish scandal | + | *20 Yule mentions the same periodical reviewing the same novel twice, good and bad (note says this happened to NGS in Saturday Review) -- a bookish scandal (cont 33) |
| + | *33 Yule: "the evil of the time is the multiplication of ephemerides." | ||
| + | ** technical bibliographical term for letters, diaries, here for fragmentary essayistic journalism | ||
===Materiality=== | ===Materiality=== | ||
Revision as of 19:45, 10 January 2018
Gissing, George. New Grub Street. Pub. 1891. Ed. Katherine Mullin. Oxford World's Classics, 2016.
- pub 3 volumes 1891 by Smith, Elder
Contents
Notes
- starts 1882, and this temporal fixity is key
- interesting to refract Reardon through Milvain at the start
- 10 milvains bourgeois (but not too comfortable)
- 13 a distinct meritocratic strain to milvain's bourgeois perspective, "we people of brains"
- 14 jasper remembers meeting Yule at the British Museum reading room
- the Yules are "dwellers in the valley of the shadow of Books"
- 18 this jasper says specifically means BM Reading Room
- 29 striking description of jasper and Marian watching the train pass from a bridge
Themes
Reading/Writing
- 12 market for children's fiction and religious stories
- 22 Yule presents an anti "spreading civilization" arg about literary trade, in line with moral concerns about novel reading
- 25 Marian misquotes Alfred Tennyson about ash trees (from Princess not Idylls)
- 27 Reardon distinct from "ordinary circulating novel" (i.e. mudie's cf Cambridge History of Libraries et al)
- 35 Yule's mind "a literary cyclopedia"
- 49 Amy advises Edwin to write stories, which are becoming more popular in periodicals
Authorship
- 6 reardon's missed expectations of "geometrical increase" in his fortunes after publishing one novel
- 8 "Literature nowadays is a trade" -- whole para
- vs "unpractical artist"
- cont on 12: a decisively anti romantic view (he as much as says "we can't all be George Eliot")
- Amy echoes on 46, "this is the age of trade" (while it's true there were socioeconomic shifts there had been tradesman novelists, Trollope or even Reynolds, in previous generations)
- 21 John Yule calls literary profession "pernicious," reminiscent of Pendennis (Thackeray, 1850)
- 27 "Men won't succeed in literature that they may get into society, but will get into society that they may succeed in literature"
- reverse of, say, Dickens (less so Thackeray or Bulwer)
- 44 Reardon's "morbid conscientiousness" (amy's words) that keep him in writer's block
Journalism/periodicals
- 8-9 milvain associated "magazines and newspapers and foreign publishers" with the market, with which a successful writer of 1882 must associate himself
- 20 Yule mentions the same periodical reviewing the same novel twice, good and bad (note says this happened to NGS in Saturday Review) -- a bookish scandal (cont 33)
- 33 Yule: "the evil of the time is the multiplication of ephemerides."
- technical bibliographical term for letters, diaries, here for fragmentary essayistic journalism
Materiality
- 6 touches of "decorative spirit of 1882" at Milvains', i.e. William Morris aestheticism
- 17 Yules a stationer family. eldest brother John Yule became a wealthy paper manufacturer
- 21 Jasper thanks John for cheap paper, this a different state of affairs than in the 1850s with taxes on knowledge
Shakespeare
- 12 "We talk of literature as a trade, not homer, Dante, or shakespeare"
