“ After a long silence, he all at once put a strange question, and in an abashed way. "Waymark, have you ever been in love?" Osmond laughed, and looked at his friend curiously. "Many thousand times," was his reply. "No, but seriously," urged Julian. "With desperate seriousness for two or three days at a time. Never longer." "Well now, answer me in all earnestness. Do you believe it possible to love a woman whom in almost every respect you regard as your inferior, who you know can't understand your thoughts and aspirations, who has no interest in anything above daily needs?" ”
George Gissing
Summary
George Gissing’s The Unclassed, published in 1884, follows Osmond Waymark, an educated but financially struggling teacher who forms a deep friendship with Julian Casti, a half-Italian man shunned by society. The novel explores themes of social exclusion, emotional distress, and the conflict between idealism and reality, as Waymark navigates relationships defined by unmet ambitions and existential despair.
Through its depiction of characters wrestling with societal pressures and personal anguish, the work highlights Gissing’s concern with the plight of the intellectual outsider. Its narrative blends reflective sorrow with the delicate hope of connection, mirroring the author’s sophisticated critique of Victorian social norms.
Quotes from The Unclassed (George Gissing)
“ I want to be a woman. Then I should know so much more, and I should be able to understand all the things you tell me I can't now. I don't care for playing at games and going to school." "You'll be a woman soon enough, Ida," said Lotty, with a quiet sadness unusual in her. "But go on; what else?" "And then I often wish I was a boy. It must be so much nicer to be a boy. They're stronger than girls, and they know more. Don't you wish I was a boy, mother?" "Yes, I do, I often do!" exclaimed Lotty. "Boys aren't such a trouble, and they can go out and shift for themselves." ”
“ With scarcely an hour of depression she had worked on through those months of solitude, supported by the sense that every day brought an accession of the strength of purity, that the dark time was left one more stage behind, and that trust in herself was growing assured. But it was harder than she had foreseen, to maintain reserve and reticence when her heart was throbbing with passion; the effect upon her of Waymark's comparative coldness was so much harder to bear than she had imagined. Her mind tortured itself incessantly with the fear that some new love had taken possession of him. ”
