Osmond Waymark, a writer and rent collector in the slums, and his friend Julian Casti, a poet trapped in a bad marriage, move through a London of poverty and pretence. Waymark is drawn to Ida Starr, who has drifted into prostitution, and to the refined Maud Enderby, and must choose between them.
Gissing’s frank second novel, essential for readers of his New Grub Street and Victorian social realism. Download the free EPUB.