Edited and introduced by Pierre Coustillas, formerly Professor of English, University of Lille; the doyen of Gissing studies.

This is George Gissing's best known and his first novel, standing alongside his classic New Grub Street.

It is a distinctive, polemical, dramatic work focused on urban social problems. Gissing deals - with his typical passion, literary skill, and personal knowledge - with the ineluctable evils of poverty, cultural deprivation, 'class', the 'tyranny of money', and the place of women in society.

First published in 3-volumes in 1880 this is the best modern edition, with an extensive critical introduction and detailed scholarly notes.

George Robert] Gissing (1857-1903) was an important and idiosyncratic naturalistic 19^th century novelist, often compared with great European writers.