Commercialism and Writers’ Alienation in George Gissing’s New Grub Street

Abstract

George Gissing’s New Grub Street is set in the 1880s when rapid industrialization was transforming every aspect of Victorian society. Writers, who were once under the protection of noble patrons, were now subjected to brutal market forces. Those who could appeal to the public enjoyed unprecedented wealth and popularity, whereas those who held on to their artistic ideals and refused to compromise often ended up in poverty and neglect. New Grub Street is especially concerned with these changes and the impact on writers. Gissing delves deep into the commercial trend of his age and depicts the disintegrating literary world with unrelenting realism. Utilizing the theory of alienation, this paper analyzes the dilemmas facing professional writers in the commercial society, specifically, writers’ self-estrangement, social isolation, and cultural estrangement as depicted in New Grub Street. Since writing is both an intellectual and physical form of labor, the paper uses Karl Marx’s theory of estranged labor to analyze writers’ alienation in the writing process.