Harvey Rolfe clawed his way out of poverty into comfortable bachelorhood, only to find that money has not purchased him peace. Dining at a London club with old friends and hungry young speculators, he observes the machinery of society grinding beneath its polished surface, where every man is either climbing or falling, and the distinction often comes down to luck. When a house robbery and domestic crisis intrude upon his carefully maintained detachment, Rolfe must confront what his hard-won independence has cost him and whether any fortune can rescue him from the currents that pull everyone toward ruin. Gissing, who chronicled Victorian England's brutal economics with unflinching precision, weaves a tale of memory, ambition, and the terrible ease with which lives can be swept away into the titular whirlpool.
