''Will Warburton: A Romance of Real Life'' was
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include '' The Nether World'' (1889), '' New Gr ...
's last
novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
. It was published in 1905, two years after Gissing's death.
Plot summary
Will Warburton is a young
gentleman of means, a man of commerce, who, losing everything in
speculation
In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, good (economics), goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline i ...
, is forced into the life of a
grocer
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
,
[Adcock, A. St. John (1905). "Gissing's Last Novel," ''The Bookman,'' Vol. XXVIII, No. 167, p. 162.] a thing he finds, at first, enormously tragic.
Will keeps his fate
secret
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.
Secrecy is often controvers ...
from his friends and his family and lives a life of humiliation and
privation
Privation is the absence or lack of basic necessities.
Child psychology
In child psychology, privation occurs when a child has no opportunity to form a relationship with a parent figure, or when such relationship is distorted, due to their treat ...
. It is only when the woman with whom he is falling in love discovers he is a grocer, and throws him over, that Will realizes that there is no
shame
Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness.
Definition
Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...
in being a grocer.
Notes
Further reading
* Halperin, John (1985). Introduction to ''Will Warburton.'' London: Hogarth Press.
* Partridge, Colin (1981). Introduction to ''Will Warburton''. Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press.
External links
''Will Warburton,''at
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
''Will Warburton'' at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
*
1905 British novels
Novels by George Gissing
Novels published posthumously
Victorian novels
Novels set in England
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