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The Whirlpool

First published: 1897
Pages: 480

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About this book

London itself is the whirlpool of Gissing's title, a churn of money, ambition, and social display that pulls his characters under. Harvey Rolfe, a comfortable bachelor drifting toward middle age, marries the restless, gifted Alma Frothingham, whose father's financial collapse leaves her hungry for a public career as a violinist. As she chases fame and the couple chase status, their marriage and their young child pay the price. Written at the close of the century, the book captures the anxieties of a moneyed middle class living beyond its means and its nerves. Gissing writes with cool intelligence about marriage, work, and the cost of modern striving. Free to download in PDF and EPUB formats.

About the author

George Gissing

George Gissing (1857-1903) was an English novelist whose work drew on his own years of poverty and hardship. Author of New Grub Street and The Odd Women, he wrote unsparingly about class, money, and the frustrated ambitions of the educated poor in late Victorian England.