APS TOGETHER
Day 24
New Grub Street by George GissingChapter 24
November 29, 2023 by Yiyun Li
The last chapter of the second of the triple-decker: a chapter of unusual courting. Marian turns out to be a good strategist overall. There is some satisfaction in witnessing her delighting in her own power over Jasper.
Jasper’s talk about his desire to have easy access to material wealth, the freedom to travel, etc., ends with rather a striking line—“to feel when I enter a room that people regard me with some curiosity”: it’s not pure fame, not pure status, but something rather complex.
Marian and Jasper, in one sense, understand each other very well. They understand each other so well that there seems to be no space left for illusion. And yet Marian still deludes herself into loving Jasper.
