New Grub Street (1891), generally regarded as Gissing's finest novel, is the story of the daily lives and broken dreams of men and women forced to earn a living by the pen. It tells of a group of novelists, journalists, and scholars caught in the literary and cultural crisis that hit Britain in the closing years of the nineteenth century. A novel about a group of novelists, journalsists, and scholars caught in the literary and cultural crisis in Britain in the final years of the nineteenth century. A novel about a group of novelists, journalsists, and scholars caught in the literary and cultural crisis in Britain in the final years of the nineteenth century. Katherine Mullin lectures in English at the University of Leeds. She is the author of James Joyce, Sexuality and Social Purity (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Working Girls: Fiction, Sexuality and Modernity , forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2016. Katherine Mullin lectures in English at the University of Leeds. She is the author of James Joyce, Sexuality and Social Purity (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Working Girls: Fiction, Sexuality and Modernity , forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2016.