The Evolution of the Man of Letters:

George Gissing’s novel New Grub Street is about the hardships of the literary industry; it is the story of writers who fight in the competitive mass market against poverty and social alienation; they reflect the author’s personal opinions regarding the plights of his own profession in face of modern demands for fast, cheap and easy literature. Gissing’s pessimistic and aggressive attitude surprises readers and calls attention to his views of positivism, science and religion. The Victorian age was the age of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer; of evolutionism and of the inevitable social changes that came along with the advancements of science as well as the increase of the population. The transposition of Darwin’s Natural Selection from the biological sphere to the social sphere seemed logical enough to understand the workings of society; however, many aspects such as the importance of money in defining the better apt to survive remained a complication. Gissing’s most popular novel questions the role of the true artist when art loses its meaning and its public; it questions the true value of art once the artist needs to think firstly of not dying of hunger.