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EMANCIPATED
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 human understanding. Published in 1890, it was Gissing's last novel before the more embittered view of New Grub Street -- a proclamation of hope, of freedom in the midst of Victorian darkness.
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 human understanding. Published in 1890, it was Gissing's last novel before the more embittered view of New Grub Street -- a proclamation of hope, of freedom in the midst of Victorian darkness.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1890
About the author
George Gissing
474 books213 followersPeople best know British writer George Robert Gissing for his novels, such as
New Grub Street
(1891), about poverty and hardship.
This English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.
Born to lower-middle-class parents, Gissing went to win a scholarship to Owens College, the present-day University of Manchester. A brilliant student, he excelled at university, winning many coveted prizes, including the Shakespeare prize in 1875. Between 1891 and 1897 (his so-called middle period) he produced his best works, which include New Grub Street, Born in Exile , The Odd Women , In the Year of Jubilee , and The Whirlpool . The middle years of the decade saw his reputation reach new heights: some critics count him alongside George Meredith and Thomas Hardy, the best novelists of his day. He also enjoyed new friendships with fellow writers such as Henry James, and H.G. Wells, and came into contact with many other up-and-coming writers such as Joseph Conrad and Stephen Crane.
This English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.
Born to lower-middle-class parents, Gissing went to win a scholarship to Owens College, the present-day University of Manchester. A brilliant student, he excelled at university, winning many coveted prizes, including the Shakespeare prize in 1875. Between 1891 and 1897 (his so-called middle period) he produced his best works, which include New Grub Street, Born in Exile , The Odd Women , In the Year of Jubilee , and The Whirlpool . The middle years of the decade saw his reputation reach new heights: some critics count him alongside George Meredith and Thomas Hardy, the best novelists of his day. He also enjoyed new friendships with fellow writers such as Henry James, and H.G. Wells, and came into contact with many other up-and-coming writers such as Joseph Conrad and Stephen Crane.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 24, 2020
A man gets a sum of money—what should he do with it? See what you think—did he spend it right?
George Gissing was a realist of the late-Victorian era. What is delivered here is real life. Not fantasy. No melodrama. Good straight believable people. The characters and the story make you feel happy. I like this a lot. A whole lot!
For a Victorian novel, wow, this is exceptionally good. They usually give me trouble, but not this!
The writing is explicit. Pay attention to the great choice of words. Gissing has a wide vocabulary, and his selection and usage of words is superb.
I call this a happy ending.
Jill Masters calmly and smoothly reads the audiobook. Very well told. Every word is clear. Told without fuss. No unnecessary drama. Four stars for the narration.
This is definitely my favorite by the author.
*******************
*Eve's Ransom 4 stars
*The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 3 stars
*The Odd Women 3 stars
*New Grub Street 2 stars
George Gissing was a realist of the late-Victorian era. What is delivered here is real life. Not fantasy. No melodrama. Good straight believable people. The characters and the story make you feel happy. I like this a lot. A whole lot!
For a Victorian novel, wow, this is exceptionally good. They usually give me trouble, but not this!
The writing is explicit. Pay attention to the great choice of words. Gissing has a wide vocabulary, and his selection and usage of words is superb.
I call this a happy ending.
Jill Masters calmly and smoothly reads the audiobook. Very well told. Every word is clear. Told without fuss. No unnecessary drama. Four stars for the narration.
This is definitely my favorite by the author.
*******************
*Eve's Ransom 4 stars
*The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 3 stars
*The Odd Women 3 stars
*New Grub Street 2 stars
January 13, 2025
Eve's Ransom
George Gissing (1857 -- 1903) was a late Victorian novelist whose best-known works are "New Grub Street," a story of the difficulty of the literary life in an age of commercialism and "The Odd Women," a novel which examines British feminism in the late 19th Century. Gissing's remaining novels tend to go in and out of print. They attract a small, if devoted, readership. Gissing was a realistic, if highly self-centered, author who tried to portray poor and lower-middle class London life as he found it. He writes, as suggested above, of the difficulties of finding meaning in an age of commercialism and of the difficulties of and ambiguities in relations between the sexes. I have long loved Gissing's books, and wanted to revisit him again.
I was pleased to see that Gissing's short novel "Eve's Ransom" (1894) is again in print. (I knew the book through an old Dover press edition.) Most of Gissing's other novels are lengthy, in the three-book model of the Victorians. Eve's Ransom is short, and the somewhat modernistic form of the book suits Gissing well. It remains one of my favorite of Gissing's works and is a good short introduction for those coming to him for the first time. Because of its unfamiliarity, I will offer a somewhat extended summary of the story in the hopes that it will interest some readers in the book or the author.
Put simply, Eve's Ransom is a story of a young man who loves a woman who doesn't love him back. The primary character is a young man named Maurice Hilliard, possessed of a terrible temper which comes to harm him in the course of the story. Hilliard is unhappily employed as a mechanical draftsman in Dudley, England. He has a contentious encounter with a man named Dengate which results in Dengate repaying Hilliard a debt of over 400 pounds that Dengate had long earlier borrowed from Hilliard's father. With some reason, Dengate predicts that Hilliard will soon dissipate the money and go to the devil.
Hilliard bids farewell to his close friend, Robert Narraamore, quits his job, and forms the ambition to experience what life is about if only for a short time before the money runs out. Before he leaves Dudley, Hilliard's landlady shows him a photograph of a young woman named Eve Madeley who has moved to London. Hilliard becomes enamored of her. With leads from the landlady and others, he is able to find and become acquainted with Eve in London.
The book tells of Hilliard's relationship with Eve and with her friend, the somewhat naive Patty Ringrose. Eve, through intelligence and effort, has worked her way from the poverty of her birth to a solid position as a bookkeeper. She still fears poverty and is determined to avoid falling back to it. Unwittingly, Eve was involved with a married man, but she terminates the relationship when she discovers the marriage.
Ultimately, Eve asks Hilliard for a loan to assist her troubled former lover. Hilliard agrees on condition that Eve and Patty accompany him to Paris, at his expense, so that Eve can free herself from her relationship. Eve reluctantly agrees. She feels grateful to Hilliard for the help but also comes to resent the hold the money and her feeling of gratitude to Hilliard have on her. She does not have the same romantic feelings for Hilliard that Hilliard has for her.
In Paris, Hailliard spends time with his old friend Narramore who is vacationing with a friend named Birching. Narramore has inherited money and is making a success of himself selling beds. Birching is an architect. At Narramore's contrivance, Hailliard uses most of his remaining money to apprentice himself to Birching's firm -- seeking to put his drafting talents and his interest in architecture to good use. He relocates to Birmingham and lives again in poverty as he pursues his architectural apprenticeship. Eve seeks out work, with the expectation that she will marry Haillard when he becomes able to support himself through architecture. A triangle develops with Haillard, Eve and Narramore which is resolved in the latter part of the book.
Gissing's story involves, as is frequently the case in his books, two flawed and not entirely likeable primary characters, Halliard and Eve. The value of the story lies in Gissing's understanding of his characters and in his unerring descriptions of dreary places and people such as rooming houses, small apartments, dingy shops, railway waiting stations, landladies, in London, Dudley, Birmingham and elsewhere. In contrast to other Victorian writers, Gissing had a harsh, misanthropic view of people. Gissing's pessimism is on display in this tale of failed love but with something of a light touch As the story ends, there is a suggestion that Hailliard has found, in a roundabout way, the freedom from care and the ability to live that he hoped to experience when he received the 400 pounds. If chastened, Hilliard has not gone to the devil in the manner that Dengate had predicted. As Gissing eloquently, if ironically, ends his tale: "And Maurice Hilliard, a free man in his own conceit, sang to himself a song of the joy of life."
Gissing is a writer on the border between Victorianism and modernity. Although he is not for everyone, I hope this review may inspire some readers to explore his works for themselves.
Robin Friedman
George Gissing (1857 -- 1903) was a late Victorian novelist whose best-known works are "New Grub Street," a story of the difficulty of the literary life in an age of commercialism and "The Odd Women," a novel which examines British feminism in the late 19th Century. Gissing's remaining novels tend to go in and out of print. They attract a small, if devoted, readership. Gissing was a realistic, if highly self-centered, author who tried to portray poor and lower-middle class London life as he found it. He writes, as suggested above, of the difficulties of finding meaning in an age of commercialism and of the difficulties of and ambiguities in relations between the sexes. I have long loved Gissing's books, and wanted to revisit him again.
I was pleased to see that Gissing's short novel "Eve's Ransom" (1894) is again in print. (I knew the book through an old Dover press edition.) Most of Gissing's other novels are lengthy, in the three-book model of the Victorians. Eve's Ransom is short, and the somewhat modernistic form of the book suits Gissing well. It remains one of my favorite of Gissing's works and is a good short introduction for those coming to him for the first time. Because of its unfamiliarity, I will offer a somewhat extended summary of the story in the hopes that it will interest some readers in the book or the author.
Put simply, Eve's Ransom is a story of a young man who loves a woman who doesn't love him back. The primary character is a young man named Maurice Hilliard, possessed of a terrible temper which comes to harm him in the course of the story. Hilliard is unhappily employed as a mechanical draftsman in Dudley, England. He has a contentious encounter with a man named Dengate which results in Dengate repaying Hilliard a debt of over 400 pounds that Dengate had long earlier borrowed from Hilliard's father. With some reason, Dengate predicts that Hilliard will soon dissipate the money and go to the devil.
Hilliard bids farewell to his close friend, Robert Narraamore, quits his job, and forms the ambition to experience what life is about if only for a short time before the money runs out. Before he leaves Dudley, Hilliard's landlady shows him a photograph of a young woman named Eve Madeley who has moved to London. Hilliard becomes enamored of her. With leads from the landlady and others, he is able to find and become acquainted with Eve in London.
The book tells of Hilliard's relationship with Eve and with her friend, the somewhat naive Patty Ringrose. Eve, through intelligence and effort, has worked her way from the poverty of her birth to a solid position as a bookkeeper. She still fears poverty and is determined to avoid falling back to it. Unwittingly, Eve was involved with a married man, but she terminates the relationship when she discovers the marriage.
Ultimately, Eve asks Hilliard for a loan to assist her troubled former lover. Hilliard agrees on condition that Eve and Patty accompany him to Paris, at his expense, so that Eve can free herself from her relationship. Eve reluctantly agrees. She feels grateful to Hilliard for the help but also comes to resent the hold the money and her feeling of gratitude to Hilliard have on her. She does not have the same romantic feelings for Hilliard that Hilliard has for her.
In Paris, Hailliard spends time with his old friend Narramore who is vacationing with a friend named Birching. Narramore has inherited money and is making a success of himself selling beds. Birching is an architect. At Narramore's contrivance, Hailliard uses most of his remaining money to apprentice himself to Birching's firm -- seeking to put his drafting talents and his interest in architecture to good use. He relocates to Birmingham and lives again in poverty as he pursues his architectural apprenticeship. Eve seeks out work, with the expectation that she will marry Haillard when he becomes able to support himself through architecture. A triangle develops with Haillard, Eve and Narramore which is resolved in the latter part of the book.
Gissing's story involves, as is frequently the case in his books, two flawed and not entirely likeable primary characters, Halliard and Eve. The value of the story lies in Gissing's understanding of his characters and in his unerring descriptions of dreary places and people such as rooming houses, small apartments, dingy shops, railway waiting stations, landladies, in London, Dudley, Birmingham and elsewhere. In contrast to other Victorian writers, Gissing had a harsh, misanthropic view of people. Gissing's pessimism is on display in this tale of failed love but with something of a light touch As the story ends, there is a suggestion that Hailliard has found, in a roundabout way, the freedom from care and the ability to live that he hoped to experience when he received the 400 pounds. If chastened, Hilliard has not gone to the devil in the manner that Dengate had predicted. As Gissing eloquently, if ironically, ends his tale: "And Maurice Hilliard, a free man in his own conceit, sang to himself a song of the joy of life."
Gissing is a writer on the border between Victorianism and modernity. Although he is not for everyone, I hope this review may inspire some readers to explore his works for themselves.
Robin Friedman
January 30, 2026
In 1893 Gissing had hoped to write an industrial novel to be
called "The Iron Gods" and started out on a holiday to Weymouth
and Cotswolds to find inspiration but as usual domestic
disturbances with Edith threw his life into chaos and the novel
was never finished. Parts of it were recycled into "Eve's
Ransom", a book that Gissing felt ashamed to have written but
with the ever increasing costs of a growing family he could not
resist the temptation of the easy money short novels and stories
offered. Gissing was a hopeless businessman but negotiated a
pretty good deal for himself. He was to get 150 pounds for the
"Illustrated London News" to run it in serial form and he would
then be free to sell the novel again in book form for whatever he
could get. And he needed as much money as he could earn what with
a sickly son, rent being due and holidays at Beachy Head, Hastings
and Eastbourne. "Eve's Ransom" wasn't the trash that Gissing
believed nor was it the "best and least appreciated" of his works
that H. G. Wells vowed.
Gissing had six months to write the story, for 5 months he could
write nothing, then in a burst of activity wrote the whole thing
in 25 days. The theme is freedom - freedom that comes from having
money (a theme Gissing could write about with conviction).
You are drawn in instantly with the chance meeting between Hilliard,
an educated young man trapped in a dead end job in grimy
Birmingham and Dengate, an unscrupulous businessman who owed
Hilliard's father a great sum of money and the end of the train
journey shows Hilliard richer by over 400 pounds. (Dengate inexplicably
shows up at the end of the book for a small confrontation scene
before passing into the night!!). Maurice decides to use the
money to live but not before promising to drop in on Eve Madeley,
a friend of his land lady's daughter, who has disappeared to London
and has been in sparse contact for the past couple of years. Her
background (and familiarity with Gissing's other books) prepares
the reader for a girl who is determined to find financial success
but to Maurice she is the girl of his dreams and he spins a fairy
tale around the picture he has so long admired in the album.
Familiar Gissing characters abound - suspicious landladies (Gissing
had plenty of experience of those). He also didn't have much
sympathy for weak minded and tearful women - Maurice's sister-in
-law Emily is portrayed as not really being good enough for his
late brother and when she hesitatingly introduces her soon to be
next husband, Gissing describes him in glowing terms with the
summing up being she is lucky to catch a man like that and "hopefully
Mr. Marr would not repent too soon of his choice"!!
He finally finds Eve but her comings and goings are not those of the
diligent working girl his former land lady has led him to believe
that Eve is. In fact when he finally introduces himself at a Health
exhibition she has just had an assignation with a strange man (much
like Monica's meeting of Widowson in "The Odd Women") and is not
really that standoffish with Maurice - especially when she learns
that he had just come back from Paris "for his pleasure". This is a
terrific mystery as Maurice also wonders how Eve is able to lead a
life of amusement as well.
As with a lot of Gissing's stories sometimes it is the minor
characters who stick in your memory. Patty Ringrose is a delight,
she is Eve's good friend and her joy of living is irrepressible -
she alone makes the Paris trip worthwhile even though she is treated
more like Eve's maid than an equal companion.
Hilliard soon finds himself back in Birmingham, almost at the end
of his funds but he has just enough left to pay for a place as a
trainee architect (a boyhood dream) and it is in this section that
Gissing shows his true feelings as regards the old idyllic rural
countryside verses the encroaching industrialization as Ashton Hall
looks out upon "the joyless streets and fuming chimneys", it's walls
being blackened with the ever belching smoke.
There are also some thinly veiled domestic views of Gissing's that
come up in a conversation with Eve when Emily begs for help from a
husband who sounds as though he has turned brutal. Maurice laughs it
off, implies that she has only got what she deserves and needed to
be taught a lesson - the scary thing is that Eve sympathizes with
him!!!
I will not give the plot away but the book finishes with Maurice a
sadder but wiser man fully vindicated in his views about women.
called "The Iron Gods" and started out on a holiday to Weymouth
and Cotswolds to find inspiration but as usual domestic
disturbances with Edith threw his life into chaos and the novel
was never finished. Parts of it were recycled into "Eve's
Ransom", a book that Gissing felt ashamed to have written but
with the ever increasing costs of a growing family he could not
resist the temptation of the easy money short novels and stories
offered. Gissing was a hopeless businessman but negotiated a
pretty good deal for himself. He was to get 150 pounds for the
"Illustrated London News" to run it in serial form and he would
then be free to sell the novel again in book form for whatever he
could get. And he needed as much money as he could earn what with
a sickly son, rent being due and holidays at Beachy Head, Hastings
and Eastbourne. "Eve's Ransom" wasn't the trash that Gissing
believed nor was it the "best and least appreciated" of his works
that H. G. Wells vowed.
Gissing had six months to write the story, for 5 months he could
write nothing, then in a burst of activity wrote the whole thing
in 25 days. The theme is freedom - freedom that comes from having
money (a theme Gissing could write about with conviction).
You are drawn in instantly with the chance meeting between Hilliard,
an educated young man trapped in a dead end job in grimy
Birmingham and Dengate, an unscrupulous businessman who owed
Hilliard's father a great sum of money and the end of the train
journey shows Hilliard richer by over 400 pounds. (Dengate inexplicably
shows up at the end of the book for a small confrontation scene
before passing into the night!!). Maurice decides to use the
money to live but not before promising to drop in on Eve Madeley,
a friend of his land lady's daughter, who has disappeared to London
and has been in sparse contact for the past couple of years. Her
background (and familiarity with Gissing's other books) prepares
the reader for a girl who is determined to find financial success
but to Maurice she is the girl of his dreams and he spins a fairy
tale around the picture he has so long admired in the album.
Familiar Gissing characters abound - suspicious landladies (Gissing
had plenty of experience of those). He also didn't have much
sympathy for weak minded and tearful women - Maurice's sister-in
-law Emily is portrayed as not really being good enough for his
late brother and when she hesitatingly introduces her soon to be
next husband, Gissing describes him in glowing terms with the
summing up being she is lucky to catch a man like that and "hopefully
Mr. Marr would not repent too soon of his choice"!!
He finally finds Eve but her comings and goings are not those of the
diligent working girl his former land lady has led him to believe
that Eve is. In fact when he finally introduces himself at a Health
exhibition she has just had an assignation with a strange man (much
like Monica's meeting of Widowson in "The Odd Women") and is not
really that standoffish with Maurice - especially when she learns
that he had just come back from Paris "for his pleasure". This is a
terrific mystery as Maurice also wonders how Eve is able to lead a
life of amusement as well.
As with a lot of Gissing's stories sometimes it is the minor
characters who stick in your memory. Patty Ringrose is a delight,
she is Eve's good friend and her joy of living is irrepressible -
she alone makes the Paris trip worthwhile even though she is treated
more like Eve's maid than an equal companion.
Hilliard soon finds himself back in Birmingham, almost at the end
of his funds but he has just enough left to pay for a place as a
trainee architect (a boyhood dream) and it is in this section that
Gissing shows his true feelings as regards the old idyllic rural
countryside verses the encroaching industrialization as Ashton Hall
looks out upon "the joyless streets and fuming chimneys", it's walls
being blackened with the ever belching smoke.
There are also some thinly veiled domestic views of Gissing's that
come up in a conversation with Eve when Emily begs for help from a
husband who sounds as though he has turned brutal. Maurice laughs it
off, implies that she has only got what she deserves and needed to
be taught a lesson - the scary thing is that Eve sympathizes with
him!!!
I will not give the plot away but the book finishes with Maurice a
sadder but wiser man fully vindicated in his views about women.
June 22, 2016
My first Gissing.
January 10, 2014
As Gissing worked on "The Emancipated" he received indications
that, at long last, he was beginning to be recognized as a
writer to be reckoned with. There were respectful reviews on
"A Life's Morning" and "The Nether World" from America, "Demos"
was being translated in both French and German and he was able
to pick up little jobs of articles and short stories. The print
media was branching out and as Gissing's reputation grew he was
able to find it easier to submit magazine work - it would prove
his bread and butter in the coming decade. Also the fact that
Nell's death of the year before was to free him both emotionally
and factually - so he was now writing with only himself to
consider (and a couple of family members). George could have made
an advantageous marriage on the strength of his reputation but
he had just experienced a mini breakdown to do with writers block
and felt the future was "hideous".
I don't agree with the reviewer who felt it wasn't among his best
books - I thought it was a complex novel dealing with middle class
intellectuals, with Gissing giving them a more fuller and rounded
treatment than in his previous novels. Gissing's love of Italy is
shown in his unrestrained descriptions as he introduces the
characters. There is Miriam Baske, only 24 but already a widow and
steeped in the misguided and religious cant that Gissing hated.
He apparently based Miriam on his deeply religious sister Margaret.
The Spences are an enlightened young couple and completely one
dimensional, a couple who spend their lives soaking up the culture
of Europe, giving always sought after advice to their friends and
having financial security to do as they please, and Ross Mallard,
an artist and a character Gissing seems to have modelled on himself.
There is a telling section where Ross remembers his home in the
north, his pious mother and his sisters whom he felt alienated from.
There is also a thumb print of his father - severe and eccentric
who also didn't really fit into the dour landscape (reads a lot like
Gissing's father).
Into this group bursts the vibrant Cecily Doran, product of (to
Gissing) an outlandish education system that filled the heads of
girls with arts and the classics but nothing to equip a person for
life's grim realities. They move to Naples and another pension
where they meet the Denyers and Gissing brings all the sarcasm he
can conjure to describe this deadly family who have nothing natural
about them. There is also another artist, Clifford Marsh, a talentless
hack.
To me this is a story of how "holiday" faces and personalities are
so often at variance with "home" ones. Enter Reuben Elgar, Miriam's
"bad penny" brother as passionate and defiant as Miriam is pious.
Gissing is at pains to point out that both Miriam and Reuben are
products of their dogmatic religious upbringing. He meets Cecily
who although brought up as a free and new woman has lived a "fairy
tale" life, not having to face anything harsh and together they
have a holiday romance. But Reuben is selfish, manic, caught up in
his own wants and desires and persuades Cecily to elope - against everyone's wishes. He is going to write... one day, but back in London, the months of inactivity and hanging about with low life cronies bring out his baser nature, he becomes dominating, wishing to subdue Cecily's independence and really it is a case of a man having more passion and fire than actual talent.
In fact the last third of the book deals with domestic difficulties,
when is a woman justified in leaving her husband ect?? A Mrs. Travis
enters the picture, she has left her husband and is now a social
outcast. She tries to befriend Cecily whom she sees as travelling the
same path as her but Reuben causes a scene. As usual Gissing tries
his best to enter into the psychology of Reuben, to show why Cecily
is partly to blame for his degradation but really Reuben is an
unlikable character (for me) from the start. Gissing also saw
positives in married couples living in separate abodes - Reuben
wistfully feels that would solve all his problems and in a later
book "In the Year of Jubilee" Nancy and Tarrant find bliss in
putting it into practise. With all the huge marital problems abounding
in the last 100 pages and the fact that Cecily seems to be
independently wealthy I can't understand why divorce is not an option.
In fact there are a few speeches on how poor Cecily will have to
face up to living the rest of her life with a stiff upper lip and
tied to a violent, philandering husband. The ending though is truly
powerful as Cecily, the thoroughly emancipated, faces life broken
and alone but is able to live life as a free woman.
that, at long last, he was beginning to be recognized as a
writer to be reckoned with. There were respectful reviews on
"A Life's Morning" and "The Nether World" from America, "Demos"
was being translated in both French and German and he was able
to pick up little jobs of articles and short stories. The print
media was branching out and as Gissing's reputation grew he was
able to find it easier to submit magazine work - it would prove
his bread and butter in the coming decade. Also the fact that
Nell's death of the year before was to free him both emotionally
and factually - so he was now writing with only himself to
consider (and a couple of family members). George could have made
an advantageous marriage on the strength of his reputation but
he had just experienced a mini breakdown to do with writers block
and felt the future was "hideous".
I don't agree with the reviewer who felt it wasn't among his best
books - I thought it was a complex novel dealing with middle class
intellectuals, with Gissing giving them a more fuller and rounded
treatment than in his previous novels. Gissing's love of Italy is
shown in his unrestrained descriptions as he introduces the
characters. There is Miriam Baske, only 24 but already a widow and
steeped in the misguided and religious cant that Gissing hated.
He apparently based Miriam on his deeply religious sister Margaret.
The Spences are an enlightened young couple and completely one
dimensional, a couple who spend their lives soaking up the culture
of Europe, giving always sought after advice to their friends and
having financial security to do as they please, and Ross Mallard,
an artist and a character Gissing seems to have modelled on himself.
There is a telling section where Ross remembers his home in the
north, his pious mother and his sisters whom he felt alienated from.
There is also a thumb print of his father - severe and eccentric
who also didn't really fit into the dour landscape (reads a lot like
Gissing's father).
Into this group bursts the vibrant Cecily Doran, product of (to
Gissing) an outlandish education system that filled the heads of
girls with arts and the classics but nothing to equip a person for
life's grim realities. They move to Naples and another pension
where they meet the Denyers and Gissing brings all the sarcasm he
can conjure to describe this deadly family who have nothing natural
about them. There is also another artist, Clifford Marsh, a talentless
hack.
To me this is a story of how "holiday" faces and personalities are
so often at variance with "home" ones. Enter Reuben Elgar, Miriam's
"bad penny" brother as passionate and defiant as Miriam is pious.
Gissing is at pains to point out that both Miriam and Reuben are
products of their dogmatic religious upbringing. He meets Cecily
who although brought up as a free and new woman has lived a "fairy
tale" life, not having to face anything harsh and together they
have a holiday romance. But Reuben is selfish, manic, caught up in
his own wants and desires and persuades Cecily to elope - against everyone's wishes. He is going to write... one day, but back in London, the months of inactivity and hanging about with low life cronies bring out his baser nature, he becomes dominating, wishing to subdue Cecily's independence and really it is a case of a man having more passion and fire than actual talent.
In fact the last third of the book deals with domestic difficulties,
when is a woman justified in leaving her husband ect?? A Mrs. Travis
enters the picture, she has left her husband and is now a social
outcast. She tries to befriend Cecily whom she sees as travelling the
same path as her but Reuben causes a scene. As usual Gissing tries
his best to enter into the psychology of Reuben, to show why Cecily
is partly to blame for his degradation but really Reuben is an
unlikable character (for me) from the start. Gissing also saw
positives in married couples living in separate abodes - Reuben
wistfully feels that would solve all his problems and in a later
book "In the Year of Jubilee" Nancy and Tarrant find bliss in
putting it into practise. With all the huge marital problems abounding
in the last 100 pages and the fact that Cecily seems to be
independently wealthy I can't understand why divorce is not an option.
In fact there are a few speeches on how poor Cecily will have to
face up to living the rest of her life with a stiff upper lip and
tied to a violent, philandering husband. The ending though is truly
powerful as Cecily, the thoroughly emancipated, faces life broken
and alone but is able to live life as a free woman.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2024
By the same author
The Paying Guest (26/11/15) 3 stars
Thyrza (28/04/16) 3 stars
A Life's Morning (30/04/16) 3 stars
The Odd Women (20/08/20) 4 stars
Sleeping Fires (19/11/20) 4 stars
Our Friend the Charlatan (19/01/21) 4 stars
The Crown of Life (02/03/21) 4 stars
Eve's Ransom (02/95/21) 4 stars
Human Odds and Ends: Stories and Sketches (30/06/21) 3 stars
The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories (07/09/21) 4 stars
The Emancipated, Volume 1 (28/02/22) 3 stars
The Emancipated, Volume 2 (14/03/22) 4 stars
The Emancipated, Volume 3 (04/04/22) 5 stars
Sins of the father,: And other tales, (16/11/23) 4 stars
The Paying Guest (26/11/15) 3 stars
Thyrza (28/04/16) 3 stars
A Life's Morning (30/04/16) 3 stars
The Odd Women (20/08/20) 4 stars
Sleeping Fires (19/11/20) 4 stars
Our Friend the Charlatan (19/01/21) 4 stars
The Crown of Life (02/03/21) 4 stars
Eve's Ransom (02/95/21) 4 stars
Human Odds and Ends: Stories and Sketches (30/06/21) 3 stars
The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories (07/09/21) 4 stars
The Emancipated, Volume 1 (28/02/22) 3 stars
The Emancipated, Volume 2 (14/03/22) 4 stars
The Emancipated, Volume 3 (04/04/22) 5 stars
Sins of the father,: And other tales, (16/11/23) 4 stars
October 1, 2020
“The old contradiction is still in force, my fame brings me no money, my books have only the smallest sale.” George Gissing
Hilliard received 435£ unexpectedly and uses it to escape his dismal life until the money runs out. He finds a photograph of a woman found in an album and sets out to find her.
“As in most of Gissing books, the setting is autobiographically exact and the theme is freedom.”
Hilliard received 435£ unexpectedly and uses it to escape his dismal life until the money runs out. He finds a photograph of a woman found in an album and sets out to find her.
“As in most of Gissing books, the setting is autobiographically exact and the theme is freedom.”
July 29, 2026
Mallard, an artist, is the reluctant guardian of Cecily, who has been brought up to be an 'emancipated' woman. Cecily spent part of her childhood in a devout and cheerless dissenter family, but has thrown off these attitudes, unlike widowed Marian. The novel opens with a superb letter written by Marian, which exposes the unkindness and lack of true Christian charity of her chapel community. Early on there are lots of descriptions of Italian scenery which are skippable - the novel really takes off at about the two-thirds mark.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that Cecily has been encouraged to think for herself, she makes a disastrous choice and has to live with the consequences. Marian on the other hand grows towards the light (if you consider art, culture and 'emancipation' from societal and religious rules to be the light - the narrator does).
There are a host of entertaining minor characters and Gissing explores what emancipation means and whether it might perhaps have been better for Cecily to submit to her guardian. Mallard's romance is touching.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that Cecily has been encouraged to think for herself, she makes a disastrous choice and has to live with the consequences. Marian on the other hand grows towards the light (if you consider art, culture and 'emancipation' from societal and religious rules to be the light - the narrator does).
There are a host of entertaining minor characters and Gissing explores what emancipation means and whether it might perhaps have been better for Cecily to submit to her guardian. Mallard's romance is touching.
October 18, 2022
Somehow Gissing's novels draw me in and fully absorb me, even though I rarely develop full sympathy with his characters. His protagonists are all drawn to portray the societal changes that were happening during the Victorian era, with a special emphasis on women's issues.
Take Cecily, for example. She was a young woman of 18 when the story opens, and had received a truly modern education. Adept at languages, including Latin, well-read, well-traveled, she was conversent in the fine arts. Her guardians were proud of her achievements and had high hopes for her to model a new kind of womanhood. They were gobsmacked that her fine education was not sufficient to govern her strong passion, and she unadvisedly eloped with the first man who paid attention to her. She had a developed mind but not a developed moral compass.
How does a fully emancipated woman operate within a traditional marriage? The husband paid lip service to her freedom, but in practicality was unable to give her free reign to socialize with those in the literary circles, unable to provide her with opportunities to continue to cultivate her mind.
Another significant character was Mrs. Baske, a young widow who had grown up in a very restrictive sect of Puritanism. She was joyless and judgemental and wholly unlikable at first, her moral compass being TOO overdeveloped. Her lengthy visit to Italy, being immersed in the arts, living amongst "emancipated" people led her to denounce her religious heritage and to be transformed into a much more broadminded and pleasant individual.
I really enjoyed the art theme that formed the backdrop for this book, the forays into Italian art and the contrasts between the British way of thinking versus the Italian and French. Cecily could, due to her liberal arts education, look at sculpture and art books without blushing--- whilst the English matriarchs looked on in horror. The straight laced, Puritan mindset was portrayed as being stifling and soul sapping.
The whole artist subculture was also explored in this book. Where did an artist fit into the rigid stratas of English society? While the arts were becoming popular in the upper classes, the artists themselves were viewed as "bohemians." Many were literally starving artists.
There are some paradoxes in this book. The art of western civilization sprang from the fountain of Christianity, yet here the later Victorians ---urbane and forward thinking--- were seeking to emancipate themselves from it. While they sought to elevate their minds, they were left floundering for a moral compass. This was poignantly evident in the inevitable Victorian deathbed scene, where there was not one modicum of comfort.
My own view is that the Christianity portrayed in this book was an extreme, rigid, almost cult-like form that anyone would want to be emancipated from. The main characters fared better with no faith, rather than under the toxic influence of a distorted religious fervor. However, I felt that "the emancipated" were floundering for some sort of moral standard, and were devoid of comfort at the hour of death.
No credit was given to Christianity as being the source of creativity that birthed all of the great works of art admired in Italy. Rather, it was discarded as an outdated relic of the past, one that hindered forward progress.
I always find Gissing's books to be mind food. His works tend to be depressing in some ways, but the questions he raises are thought provoking. How can a well educated woman be fruitful in Victorian society? Are artists a special sub-strata in English society, and how should they be remunerated? Can a a modernly educated individual still hold religious views? Does religion quench creativity or enhance it? Where does one find a moral bedrock if religion is discarded?
I find Gissing's books dense, absorbing, finely written, and wonderful mind food--- even though I don't always agree with his conclusions.
Take Cecily, for example. She was a young woman of 18 when the story opens, and had received a truly modern education. Adept at languages, including Latin, well-read, well-traveled, she was conversent in the fine arts. Her guardians were proud of her achievements and had high hopes for her to model a new kind of womanhood. They were gobsmacked that her fine education was not sufficient to govern her strong passion, and she unadvisedly eloped with the first man who paid attention to her. She had a developed mind but not a developed moral compass.
How does a fully emancipated woman operate within a traditional marriage? The husband paid lip service to her freedom, but in practicality was unable to give her free reign to socialize with those in the literary circles, unable to provide her with opportunities to continue to cultivate her mind.
Another significant character was Mrs. Baske, a young widow who had grown up in a very restrictive sect of Puritanism. She was joyless and judgemental and wholly unlikable at first, her moral compass being TOO overdeveloped. Her lengthy visit to Italy, being immersed in the arts, living amongst "emancipated" people led her to denounce her religious heritage and to be transformed into a much more broadminded and pleasant individual.
I really enjoyed the art theme that formed the backdrop for this book, the forays into Italian art and the contrasts between the British way of thinking versus the Italian and French. Cecily could, due to her liberal arts education, look at sculpture and art books without blushing--- whilst the English matriarchs looked on in horror. The straight laced, Puritan mindset was portrayed as being stifling and soul sapping.
The whole artist subculture was also explored in this book. Where did an artist fit into the rigid stratas of English society? While the arts were becoming popular in the upper classes, the artists themselves were viewed as "bohemians." Many were literally starving artists.
There are some paradoxes in this book. The art of western civilization sprang from the fountain of Christianity, yet here the later Victorians ---urbane and forward thinking--- were seeking to emancipate themselves from it. While they sought to elevate their minds, they were left floundering for a moral compass. This was poignantly evident in the inevitable Victorian deathbed scene, where there was not one modicum of comfort.
My own view is that the Christianity portrayed in this book was an extreme, rigid, almost cult-like form that anyone would want to be emancipated from. The main characters fared better with no faith, rather than under the toxic influence of a distorted religious fervor. However, I felt that "the emancipated" were floundering for some sort of moral standard, and were devoid of comfort at the hour of death.
No credit was given to Christianity as being the source of creativity that birthed all of the great works of art admired in Italy. Rather, it was discarded as an outdated relic of the past, one that hindered forward progress.
I always find Gissing's books to be mind food. His works tend to be depressing in some ways, but the questions he raises are thought provoking. How can a well educated woman be fruitful in Victorian society? Are artists a special sub-strata in English society, and how should they be remunerated? Can a a modernly educated individual still hold religious views? Does religion quench creativity or enhance it? Where does one find a moral bedrock if religion is discarded?
I find Gissing's books dense, absorbing, finely written, and wonderful mind food--- even though I don't always agree with his conclusions.
April 27, 2024
A brilliant, subtle, and undeservingly forgotten novel. Worth reading for the descriptions of Italy alone.
September 7, 2019
I enjoyed The Odd Women, but found this kind of tedious going. Hilliard, a young man who finds his life dull and mechanical and not very well-paying, is given money by a man who owed his father. He decides to leave his job and take a holiday where he can finally enjoy life. His enjoyment is kind of dull since he’s used to saving every penny. As he leaves the house where he has boarded (an industrial town near Birmingham) for London, he grows enamored of the picture of a friend of the daughter of the house and decides to find her. She, too, is burdened by a hard life and low pay, and although she doesn’t admit it at first, is a,so undergoing a crisis of spirit. Although she keeps pulling away he doesn’t take the hint and splurges to take Eve and her closest friend to Paris for several months so that they can all enjoy life. He keeps wanting her to love him and she feels gratitude but nothing more. Eventually she marries his best friend. He’s hard to take and so is she. But after she’s been married for a year and he finally becomes the architect that he’s a,ways wanted to be, he’s happy if not married.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2025
3.5* rounded down.
Hilliard unexpectedly comes into a sum of money which will allow him to give up work for a couple of years. Attracted by the photograph of Eve, a woman in his landlady's album, he tracks her down in London and gradually places her under such a sense of obligation to him that she agrees to marry him, but will she follow through...?
This was interesting, although Hilliard wasn't very likeable, and both he and the narrator had plenty of disparaging things to say about women and the working class. It kept me guessing and I thought the ending was very satisfactory.
Hilliard unexpectedly comes into a sum of money which will allow him to give up work for a couple of years. Attracted by the photograph of Eve, a woman in his landlady's album, he tracks her down in London and gradually places her under such a sense of obligation to him that she agrees to marry him, but will she follow through...?
This was interesting, although Hilliard wasn't very likeable, and both he and the narrator had plenty of disparaging things to say about women and the working class. It kept me guessing and I thought the ending was very satisfactory.
May 22, 2017
Gissing was a well known, if short lived, British writer of the late 19th century. His writing is thought to be a realistic view of Victorian Britain. Hilliard, the main character, unexpectedly is given 436 pounds. He quits his dead end job and decides to live on it for as long as the money will allow. But, instead he uses it to change the lives of two young women, also caught in dead end jobs. In some ways a romance, but not quite.
March 17, 2018
Interesting book about life. How money plays significant role in people's relationship
June 22, 2020
A good enough read.
December 26, 2020
Oh the familiar pain of unrequited love. The ending is both sad and beautiful.
Read
March 22, 2017Okay - not as good as the Odd Women
July 9, 2026
I'm very surprised that this novel is not receiving more attention on Goodreads. It's a classic novel that gives us an insight into the thoughts and views of Victorian society particularly on religion, art and marriage. Even the best of Gissing's characters are flawed and therefore all too human. The Spences come off best, with a rather humorous but calm, gentle approach to others - an approach born of experience. As a reader, I was never quite certain what Gissing thought 'emancipation' ultimately was. It seemed to involve, for him, a turning away from shallow Puritan ideas and an appreciation of art and literature. When it came to relationships though, the novel seemed to question whether it is possible to be 'emancipated' within a marriage, which necessitates commitment to another human being? Gissing, I suspect, was conflicted about the emancipation of women in terms of political and economic freedom; but, I'm not going to judge him too harshly, as these were early days (1880s) in terms of British feminism and, at least the conundrums in this novel flag up urgent questions about societal attitudes and their consequences for both sexes. If nothing else, Gissing brings Naples to life for us and during the first half of the novel, we are transported to its locality and charmed as much as the tourists at the boarding house on the Mergellina. Book Two, set more in England than in Italy, therefore comes as rather a shock with its miseries great and small. '...the word "superstition" was no guarantee against the haunting of superstition itself.' (the edition of the book I have read is a Paperback Hogarth Press edition from 1985)
June 4, 2024
Set, as many of his books are, among the middle class in the late 19th century, Gissing continues to show his willingness to eviscerate every element of that society that he can get his pen near. He is brilliant at finding just the right words to totally deconstruct the motives and virtues of his characters, almost entirely to their detriment. His treatment of women shows the complexities of life for those who are newly educated in an era that still only sees them as wives and mothers, but it is not nearly as thorough as The Odd Women (my personal favorite Gissing novel). His criticism of religion feels heavy handed compared to the nuanced complexity he shows on many other issues. I was swept up in the characters, but mostly it was more of a sense of "what idiotic thing will you do next?" rather than out of any particular affection.
October 22, 2009
George Gissing's novel, "Eve's Ransom" is a character study of a man and a woman and their frailties. It is a good story, if a tad predictable. It is only predictable, however, because Gissing does such a good job of telling the story, and the characters are timeless, unfortunately. There is a touch of nobility along with selfishness, and also a bit of the fatigue of struggling financially through life and the toll that it takes.
October 9, 2010
An odd, old-fashioned book, the kind I like, "Eve's Ransom" is the story of a man who determines almost on a whim to rescue a young woman from a life of drudgery. As I read, I kept thinking of Rebecca West's The Judge, though that novel is far superior. Something about Gissing's Eve and Hilliard reminds me of West's Ellen and Richard. I shall have to tease out exactly what later...
November 14, 2021
Gissing's great phase (New Grub Street through The Whirlpool) begins just after this book. A few powerful scenes aside, this is a fairly enjoyable portrait of bohemian middle-class life in the 1870s, featuring Italy as well as England. Gissing's understanding of feminism is progressive for the time, but this is scarcely a feminist classic, and is surpassed on all fronts by The Odd Women.
September 20, 2012
Not one of Gissing's best.
October 2, 2014
My review will be added soon
November 10, 2023
Was aight 🤓
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