Demos

A New Edition Of Gissing's Demos It is an event when a new edition of a rare novel of the late Victorian writer George Gissing (1857 -- 1903) becomes available. "Demos" was Gissing's third novel and was first published anonymously in 1886. It is one of a series of Gissing's early novels that deal wit......more

It’s been a while since I read any George Gissing, but I remember ‘New Grub Street’, ‘The Odd Women’ and ‘The Nether World’ as standing tall at the more modern end of Victorian fiction. They’re books which aren’t as staid as some of their contemporaries, nor as cloying as some of their contemporarie......more

The book gives vivid pictures of the working and gentry classes and a certain version of socialist movement, with quite some engaging psychological passages. The hero has multiple facets in his personality which undergoes change over time. He and some other characters all internally struggle and mak......more

This novel revolves broadly around the class struggle in nineteenth century England. The cast of characters are representative of a wide spectrum of society, and here we also find some of the different guises of the socialist, depending on the individual claiming to be sympathetic with this politica......more

This is the third George Gissing novel I’ve read after New Grub Street and The Odd Women and apart from the weak romantic ending I enjoyed it very much. I came to it not long after reading the remarkable The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists with which it has the shared theme of the rise of Socialism......more