Thyrza [Paperback]

First published in 1887, Gissing intended Thyrza to contain the very spirit of London working-class life . His story tells of Walter Egremont, an Oxford-trained idealist who gives lectures on literature to workers, some of them from his father's Lambeth factory. Thyrza Trent, a young hat-trimmer, meets and falls in love with him, forsaking Gilbert Grail, an intelligent working man who Egremont has put in charge of his library. In a tale of ambition, betrayal and disillusionment, Gissing's heroine aspires to purity and self-improvement. Trapped by birth and circumstance, she is unable to escape her destiny. Thyrza Trent is the embodiment of Gissing's preoccupation with sex, class and money, and through her he exposes a society instrinsically opposed to social mobility. In a letter Gissing wrote, Thyrza herself is one of the most beautiful dreams I ever had or shall have. I value the book really more than anything I have yet done. Contemporary critics praised Gissing's profound...knowledge of the London poor and his courageous presentation of truth . His unforgettable portrayal of urban poverty describes the meanness and inveterate grime of the Caledonian Road and a Lambeth redolent with oleaginous matter . Thyrza is a powerful, shocking and unforgettable novel. This new scholarly edition, the first for over twenty-five years, includes: * critical introduction by Pierre Coustillas * author biography * select bibliography * explanatory endnotes * specially-commissioned maps of Gissing's London * essay on Thyrza's geography by Richard Dennis * essay on Gissing's revision of Thyrza by David Grylls