In the Year of Jubilee (1894) is a novel by George Gissing. Inspired by his own struggles as a working writer and unhappily married man, Gissing crafts a tale of romance and ambition that measures the dreams of one woman against the realities of an unjust society. In the Year of Jubilee poses important questions about convention in Victorian England while proving surprisingly relevant for our own times. Nancy Lord is a young, well-educated woman raised by a single father following the death of her mother. After ...
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In the Year of Jubilee (1894) is a novel by George Gissing. Inspired by his own struggles as a working writer and unhappily married man, Gissing crafts a tale of romance and ambition that measures the dreams of one woman against the realities of an unjust society. In the Year of Jubilee poses important questions about convention in Victorian England while proving surprisingly relevant for our own times. Nancy Lord is a young, well-educated woman raised by a single father following the death of her mother. After completing her schooling, Nancy looks forward to a life of independence and success, but struggles with an inability to focus her ambition. In a moment of uncertainty, she allows herself to be wooed by Lionel Tarrant, a handsome and charming young man who promises her love and security. The two are soon married, but when Nancy becomes pregnant her husband decides to leave for the Bahamas, swearing he must do so in order to provide for his wife and child. Alone and heartbroken, Nancy steels herself, lowers her aspirations, and finds work as a dressmaker at a shop owned by Beatrice, the sibling of her sister-in-law Fanny. Meanwhile, her brother Horace wallows in an unhappy marriage while failing as a businessman and disappointing his elderly father. When Lionel returns, he gains his way back into Nancy's life through pity, relying on her to provide for the family while controlling and limiting her life. In the Year of Jubilee explores the inequities of class and gender in Victorian England while suggesting that the struggle for happiness is often what drives us to misery. This edition of George Gissing's In the Year of Jubilee is a classic work of English literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
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George Gissing originally titled this 1894 novel with the title of this review, but his publisher persuaded him to use "In the Year of Jubilee" instead. Gissing (1857 -- 1903) was a late Victorian novelist who remains relatively unknown. Among other things, his book are distinguished for their attempts at realism and for their pessimism. I have continued to read and to love Gissing's books over the years. "The Year of Jubilee" is part of what most readers find Gissing's most productive period of writing.
Jacob Korg, a noted Gissing scholar, has well-described the novel as "a sprawling story about marriage problems and the corruption of values in industrial society". The book begins in 1887, with the Jubilee Day for Queen Victoria as its initial focus. Masses of people turn out to celebrate progress and democratization with, in Gissing's view, violence and vulgarization the near consequence. The story soon pivots, however, to the relationship between its two main characters, Nancy Lord and Lionel Tarrant.
Jubilee is an appropriate reference for the book's title, but Gissing's first thought had merit as well. Nancy Lord, 23, is the heroine of this novel, one of Gissing's many inspired women characters. She is a strong figure and strives for personal and sexual independence. Nancy Lord deserves better than what she receives in the book. Camberwell, the other component of Gissing's proposed title, is a London suburb, home in Gissing's day to a rising middle class including the Lord family. Nancy's father was a seller of pianos. His wife had apparently died early. Lord has tried to provide his children, Nancy and Horace, with a strong education and conventional upbringing. Both Nancy and Horace rebel in different ways and strike out for themselves.
Nancy has three suitors in the course of the book: Lionel Tarrant, an egotistical young man born to wealth who doesn't want to work or marry beneath himself, Luckworth Crewe, an ambitious man of the lower middle class who is working himself up to the main chance through the advertising business, and Samuel Barmby, Lord's business partner, who is pretentious, full of himself, and a fool. In a frank scene, for its day, Nancy has sex with Tarrant. She is not an innocent, but is instead both seductress and seduced. The couple then marry. Nancy's father dies leaving a will forbidding Nancy to marry until she reaches the age of 26 under pain of disinheritance. Nancy and Tarrant agree to try to conceal the marriage. Nancy is also pregnant.
Tarrant, a caddish figure, disappears to America for a year. Nancy grows in stature during this time, as she struggles to have her baby, find independence, and do some writing on her own. She remains faithful to Tarrant who is not faithful to her. Nancy is on the verge of throwing Tarrant over, but he returns and says he wants to pursue the marriage. The book settles unsatisfactorily with a near traditional wife's role for Nancy although at Tarrant's insistence both parties to the marriage are to have "space".
As so often with Gissing, the secondary characters are more interesting than the main story. Gissing is at his best when his passions are aroused, as is the case when he describes with disdain the rising lower middle class and its foibles. He describes numerous failed relationships and characters, including the French sisters, Fanny, Ada, and Beatrice. Nancy's brother is smitten with Fanny, who is a femme fatale. Ada is the shrewish wife of Arthur Peachey who eventually throws her over. Beatrice is a businesswoman who sells shoddy dresses to women who imagine themselves fashionable. The rising Luckworth Crewe does Beatrice's advertising and becomes her dominating business partner. Other important characters include Nancy's friend Jessica, who studies and has academic ambitions to no clear purpose, and a Mrs. Damerel, a mysterious character who presents herself as Nancy's and Horace's aunt.
"In the Year of Jubilee" is an ambiguous, highly mixed book that straddles Victorianism and modernism. Gissing as well seems to be of many minds about the situations he describes, about women in particular. His dislike for commercialism, advertising, the masses, and economic growth without wisdom remain clear. The book is marred by too many characters, lack of focus and probably by the figure of Lionel Tarrant who, in spite of some good qualities, remains highly dislikable and a poor reward for Nancy.
"The Year of Jubilee" deserves a modern edition. The last edition of "In the Year of Jubilee" was published in 1994 by "Everyman", with an excellent introduction by Paul Delany that may be found and read online. I was fortunate to find a reading copy of the first American edition of 1895, which was available for about the same price as the current offprint copies. I reviewed the first American edition separately here on Amazon, In the Year of Jubilee [1st American Edition] for those readers who may be interested.
