The Nether World
1889
The Nether World, published in 1889 by George Gissing, is a naturalistic novel that portrays the lives of impoverished families in the slums of 19th-century London. Centered around the character Jane Snowdon, the narrative explores the struggles, aspirations, and harsh realities faced by the working class, highlighting themes of poverty and social injustice. Gissing's work is notable for its unflinching depiction of the economic forces shaping the lives of the poor, devoid of sentimentality and rich in detail, making it one of his most significant early novels.
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“Poverty makes a crime of every indulgence.””
— George Gissing
“But we have no money. Suffer as we may, there's no help for it”
— George Gissing
“She had dreamed her dream, and on awaking must be content to take up the day's duties. Just in the same way, when she was a child at Mrs. Peckover's, did not sleep often bring a vision of happiness, of freedom from bitter tasks, and had she not to wake in the miserable mornings, trembling lest she had lain too long? Her condition was greatly better than then, so much better that it seemed wicked folly to lament because one joy was not granted her.”
— George Gissing
“For, work as you will, there is no chance of a new and better world until the old be utterly destroyed.””
— George Gissing
“Genuine respect for law is the result of possessing something which the law exerts itself to guard. Should it happen that you possess nothing, and that your education in metaphysics has been grievously neglected, the strong probability is that your mind will reduce the principle of society to its naked formula: Get, by whatever means, so long as with impunity.””
— George Gissing
“His grey eyes searched her countenance with that horrible intensity of fanaticism which is so like the look of cruelty, of greed, of any passion originating in the baser self.””
— George Gissing
“Yes; they can take everything. How foolish of Stephen Candy and his tribe not to be born of the class of landlords! The inconvenience of having no foothold on the earth’s surface is so manifest.””
— George Gissing
“Don’t laugh! Don’t any of you laugh; for as sure as I live it was an angel stood in the room and spoke to me. There was a light such as none of you ever saw, and the angel stood in the midst of it. And he said to me: “Listen, whilst I reveal to you the truth, that you may know where you are and what you are; and this is done for a great purpose.” And I fell down on my knees; but never a word could I have spoken. Then the angel said: “You are passing through a state of punishment. You, and all the poor among whom you live; all those who are in suffering of body and darkness of mind, were once rich people, with every blessing the world can bestow, with every opportunity of happiness in yourselves and of making others happy. Because you made an ill use of your wealth, because you were selfish and hard-hearted and oppressive and sinful in every kind of indulgence”
— George Gissing
“What a vile, cursed world this is, where you may see men and women perish before your eyes, and no more chance of saving them than if they were going down in mid-ocean!””
— George Gissing
