Thyrza. A Tale (in 3 vols.)

London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1887. First edition. Very Good. Original publisher's cloth binding stamped in black. Yellow endpapers. Measuring 185 x 125mm and collating complete with half titles to all volumes and publisher's adverts to rear of final volume: [6], 291, [1]; [6], 316; [6], 298, [2, adverts]. A Very Good copy with minor bumps to extremities; some hinges tender and starting. Rear hinge repaired in volume 1. Minor marginal foxing and staining throughout, not affecting text.

"George Gissing intended Thyrza to contain the very spirit of London working-class life. His story tells of Walter Egremont, an Oxford trained idealist who gives lectures on literature to workers, some of them from his father's Lambeth factory. Thyrza Trent, a young hat trimmer, meets and falls in love with him, forsaking Gilbert Grail, an intelligent working man who Egremont has put in charge of his library. In a tale of ambition, betrayal, and disillusionment, Gissing's heroine aspires to purity and self-improvement. Trapped by birth and circumstance, she is unable to escape her destiny. Thyrza Trent is the embodiment of Gissing's preoccupation with sex, class, and money. Through her, he exposes a society intrinsically opposed to social mobility" (Victorian Secrets). Very Good.