George Gissing, Born in Exile

David Grylls (University of Oxford)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1892

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
- Bildungsroman

Resources

Born in Exile, Gissing's eleventh novel, was published in 1892. Like its predecessor, New Grub Street (1891), it combines acute psychology with sharp social analysis. It is excellent on shame, jealousy, temptation, the hopes and resentments of the socially thwarted, the nerve-frets of anxious intellectuals. It also deals with large late-Victorian issues: the conflict between science and religion; the insidious persistence of the class system; the question of the relations between the sexes; the loosening grip of orthodox morality. Yet it is a novel in which action is minimal.

It opens in 1874 with prize-day at Whitelaw College. Here, key characters are introduced: Godwin Peak, a brainy but angular young man; his r…

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1948 words

Citation: Grylls, David. "Born in Exile". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 December 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6211, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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