The London Frame of Mind in Born in Exile

Abstract

Despite the obvious intellectual heft of Born in Exile, it has not attained the same eminence in the Gissing canon as New Grub Street. One challenge that the novel presents is the inextricability of narrative judgments and Godwin Peak's self-regarding perspective. Gissing's indulgent attitude to his self-involved hero inhibits the exploration of multiple perspectives that is a hallmark of his most compelling work. Attentiveness to the way London figures in the novel offers a productive means of forming an alternative, more nuanced perspective on Peak and his condition of exile. London functions as a literal birthplace for Peak and as a psychological environment that operates inconsistently on those who live in it. London's unreliability as a secure site of psychological location makes it an appropriate place of origin for the novel's hero, who seeks but persistently fails to escape exile. Peak's failure would be pitiable, except that what power he possesses resides in his failure to find satisfactory placement. His achievement is to remain in angry exile from satisfactory social integration.