Started: March 29, 2024 | Finished: April 6. 2024
Demos
”Demos” is my vote for ‘relatively undiscovered gem of Victorian literature”. This book strengthens my growing opinion that George Gissing is an amazing writer. Rea it and I’m sure you’ll agree >
I think the subtitle of this book, which is “A Story of English Socialism” or, as in some editions, “The Story of Socialism”, is misleading. Thankfully, this novel is not about socialist concepts. It is about class relations - and that makes it all the more interesting.
“Demos” means “the common people” and sure enough that is where the book starts. We meet Richard Mulimer, a member of the working class, Socialist, likes to make speeches to the masses during his free time advocating Socialism and the revolution.
Then, out of the blue, a rich uncle dies and Muliner becomes the master of an estate. The book gives us a ringside seat of what happens to a working class guy and his family when they suddenly have the means usually available to the nobility.
I found this novel to be at all times an engrossing read and at certain times a spectacular one. Several times I found myself exclaiming over the plot twists and one time was fist-pumping with a big green. This book is as good as as Gissing’s New Grub Street, and I love New Grub Street
It is also the first book of Gissing that doesn’t prominently feature poverty since it focuses on the working classes as well as the genteel and noble classes. The focus here is on class relations.
This is also a good book to recommend to someone who is contemplating getting married for purposes other than love. It shows the folly of doing such a thing.
Gissing writes with flowing prose and, as usual, takes us into the minds of his characters. There is no Gissing book to date where I have highlighted so many quotable passages as I have in Demos.. The book is fairly long at five hundred pages but unlike with Workers in the Dawn, Gissing was able to hold my attention throughout. An excellent novel.