Whirlpool (Everyman Paperback Classics) [Paperback]

George Gissing (Author)

Book Description

Series: Everyman Paperback Classics | Publication Date: May 15, 1997

In this novel the marriage of Harvey Rolfe and Alma Frothingham is poisoned by sexual jealousy, selfish ambition and deceit. Harvey and Alma are caught up in the social whirlpool of London, as their initial desire for the simple life is drowned in the bustle and chaos of city life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Group, Ltd. (May 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046087781X
• ISBN-13: 978-0460877817
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,154,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Irresistible Character Analysis, May 29, 2005

By 

disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whirlpool (Everyman Paperback Classics) (Paperback)

Although this Gissing novel was revived for critical admiration about a century after it had first appeared to mixed or lackluster reviews, it continues to remain on murky, shadowy shelves, little-read. What a supreme shame. It is interesting from the beginning, never flagging in its incisive exploration of relationships. The novel is essentially a drawing-room drama that explores the autumn of the Victorian era. Its focus is on denizens who are not the bohemians or working-class outsiders to society that populated many of Gissings other books, but the lower and middle ranks of *society* itself. It follows the folks we would today call "trust-fund children," people poorly prepared for earning their own way in life, saddled with excess leisure time and burdened with a stringent set of rules about propriety. They, like their less fortunate fellow citizens, are having to learn as they go along about the modern era and its stock-market and social commodities.

But this is only the backdrop for the meaty aspects of the book. The glory of the novel is Gissing's examination of relationships. By scrutinzing a particularly vivid woman-- a narcissist whose self-deceptions clamor to distort every attachment she forms-- the author brings an expert hand to describing marriages, friendships, parent-child bonds. Gissing shows a psychologist's keen insight into the ways that generations pass on strengths and weaknesses, the way a parent's behaviors will mold the desires of his children's adulthoods. He is perceptive about how vastly different people may attract one another in the subconscious hopes that they will counter-balance each other's excesses. He is able to show how friendships can round out-- or contaminate-- the weaknesses in a person's character. Impulses war with conscious goals in these people, loyalty is set against self-interest.

The fickleness of adolescence, the intricacies of courtship, the successes and failures of marital negotiations-- all of these are brilliantly reflected in the plot. Gissing shows a masterly hand at dialogue. Domestic and societal intrigue are drawn into the story as the femme fatale becomes increasingly desperate. The novel is less overtly philosophical than his better-known *The Odd Women.* It is no less impressive, however. I enjoyed the book from beginning to end.

The Everyman edition is especially fine-- it sports a great introduction by William Greenslade, timelines not only of Gissing's life but of the artistic and political era, as well as illuminating explanatory notes and excerpts from the reviews of the 1890s and 1980s.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Whirlpool, October 21, 2010

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Whirlpool (Everyman Paperback Classics) (Paperback)

George Gissing's novel "The Whirlpool" is a grim, pessimistic and thoughtful examination of materialistic, fast-paced urban life and of the difficulties of what today is frequently described as companionate marriage. Of all Gissing's novels, this book is probably the most modernistic in tone. Published in 1897, "The Whirlpool" is a late work of Gissing (1857 -- 1903. It was written after the author had achieved a degree of critical and popular recognition after writing in relative obscurity for much of his life. Most of Gissing's books deal with the London poor or with the middle class. "The Whirlpool" is unique for Gissing in its upper middle-class setting, and the book has some similarities to the writings of Henry James. Gissing wrote best about places and people that he knew. In some respects, he seems uncomfortable in his descriptions of the worlds of finance and of the business of music that form the backdrop of this novel. In its pessimism, the book is typical of Gissing. Thus, in an earlier novel, "The Nether World", The Nether World (Oxford World's Classics) Gissing's most detailed look at the London poor, Gissing observes that there is little to distinguish the nether world of the slums from the world of the upper-class. In many respects, "The Whirlpool" is "The Nether World" transferred.

The title "The Whirlpool" is the key metaphor of the book. Gissing and his main character, Harvey Rolfe describe the world of late Nineteenth Century London as "a ghastly whirlpool which roars over a bottomless pit" (p. 47)for its ceaseless and senseless activity devoted to the pursuit of money which draws everyone into its maw. In discussing the difficulties of raising children, Rolfe observes that "There's the whirlpool of the furiously busy. Round and round they go; brains humming till they melt or explode." (p. 147)

The novel centers upon the marriage between Harvey Rolfe, age 37 at the outset of the novel, and Alma Frothingham, roughly 16 years younger. Rolfe is a Gissing-type male character, educated, well-meaning, but passive, rootless, and weak. Rolfe is educated and a reader and appears content to live as a single man on a competence of investments which he manages prudently and modestly. He meets the young, beautiful Alma, however, and determines to marry her. Alma is the daughter of a financier who kills himself when his investment firm fails, bringing ruin to many people. She has difficulty living this down. Alma also is a violinist of real if modest talent who aspires to turn professional. When Harvey and Alma marry, they promise to respect each other's independence and not to interfere with one another's lives. They agree to escape London and remove to a rural area in Wales where Alma has a son, Hughie, and abandons her violin for a time.

After two years in Wales, Alma becomes restless and frustrated and the couple return to London where they both are soon drawn into the Whirlpool. Alma pursues her ambition to become a concert violinist but the price is high. She must deal with and try to manipulate two men who had earlier tried to seduce her. She also neglects her son and her husband while growing unreasonably and wrongly suspicious that Harvey has had an earlier affair. Harvey, for his part, allows Alma to pursue her musical career but at the price of seeming indifference to her. The story takes a startling turn when Alma makes a surreptitious visit to the home of one of her sponsors, a wealthy rake named Redgrave, the night before her concert. She witnesses a fight between Redgrave and a family friend named Hugh (for whom Hughie was named) Carnady who punches and accidentally kills Redgrave because he thinks, with some degree of plausibility, that Redgrave is having an affair with his wife, Sibil. Both Sibil and Alma have reasons for concealing the affair and for imputing infidelity to the other. Alma becomes fervish and ill, is blackmailed, resorts to drugs, and soon dies from an accidental overdose.

The book is replete with nasty, selfish individuals out for the main chance. Gissing is frequently at his best in his characterizations of women, and his portrayal of Alma, her ambitions, and her weaknesses is particularly insightful. Rolfe and Gissing suggest that the problems of the relationship, besides the incompatibility of Rolfe and Alma in what they want out of life, is due to the quest of both parties to the marriage for independence and autonomy. The novel shows sympathy for Alma and her ambitions, but her dreams of becoming a concert violinist are shown as unfounded given her level of musical ability and inconsistent with being a loving wife and a good mother for Hughie. In discussing companionate marriage and its difficulties in an urban, materialistic world, Gissing writes perceptively about an issue which has assumed critical importance in modern life. His thoughts on the matter are not those of most people today. But the value of the book lies in how Gissing presents the issue and in his portrayal of the weaknesses and the frustrations in the many men-women relationships that have a place in "The Whirlpool."

The book is slow-reading and clumsy, as is much of Gissing. It is also written for the most part in a flat style which is in marked contrast to the passion and the fervid, neurotic behavior of most of the characters in the story. For all its shortcomings, "The Whirlpool" is an excellent, intelligent novel of ideas and character.

This particular edition of "The Whirlpool" unfortunately is no longer in print. It includes an excellent introduction by William Greenslade of the University of West England, Bristol, and good notes which explain Gissing's many topical references to the London of his day. In addition, the edition includes a summary of critical reactions to "The Whirlpool" from the books publication to the 1980s. The novel received mixed reviews upon publication (including a review by Henry James) and then was largely forgotten in the Gissing canon (itself not well-known on the whole) until the latter part of the Twentieth Century. The book then went through several editions due to its treatment of modern marriage and the role of women. The only new editions currently available of "The Whirlpool" appear to be computer offprints which are useable but not good. A reissue of this excellent "Everyman" edition of "The Whirlpool" would be highly welcome.

Robin Friedman

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Gissing, June 18, 2007

By 

MalPitts (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Whirlpool (Paperback)

Gissing has few equals in writing about relationships, especially relationships between men and women. Here he does particularly well in describing how a married couple, both with the best intentions, somehow, to the surprise and dismay of both, drift into suspicion and mistrust. Not my favorite Gissing because the story gets pretty melodramatic, but still, very good. And as always with Gissing, don't expect a happy ending.