"The Vice of Wedlock": The Theme of Marriage in George Gissing's Novels

Gissing's "marriage novels" exhibit a remarkable insight into the psychology of marriage where contemporary marital issues are reflected and set up experimentally to disclose the difficulties in reconciling the practical reality with the new theories. In his charting of the boundaries between the old and the new ideals, Gissing has been criticized for ambiguity and misogyny. By placing his novels in a literary and social context and presenting close readings of five major novels of the 1890s, this study challenges these widely held views and hopes to do justice to Gissing's discerning marriage portrayals, comparable to those of Balzac, Ibsen and Strindberg.