The late-Victorian novelist George Gissing had a complex, often paradoxical personality. Biographers have typically identified his female family members as impediments to his self-realization. It is possible to tell a different, less unsympathetic story; it is also possible to see his novel The Emancipated (1890) as yet a third, analogous story about the prospects of escape from an uncongenial yet formative background.

Presented by Constance Harsh, Rebecca S. Chopp Chair in the Humanities and professor of English.

Refreshments provided. All are welcome.