APS TOGETHER
Day 29
New Grub Street by George GissingChapter 29
December 4, 2023 by Yiyun Li
“Their eyes met and the look of each seemed to fascinate the other.”
This superb line appears in the middle of a life-changing conversation between Alfred Yule and Marian. Gissing doesn’t linger too much on the sentence level, but when he does, there is a chill and a thrill.
Victor Duke’s story, in the middle of a chapter called "Catastrophe," is still shocking. A whole new novel behind that brief encounter.
Nothing makes Alfred Yule more hateful when he reads the letter, learns of the lost money, gives the letter to his wife to share with Marian, listens to her fainting, and then says to his wife:
“Attend to her. I suppose you know better than I do what to do when a person faints.”
A very striking sequence of events.
