Born In Exile

This novel deals with the themes of class, religion, love and marriage. The premise of the novel is drawn from Gissing's own early life — an intellectually superior man born into a socially inferior milieu, though the story arc diverges significantly from the actuality. The main protagonist, Godwin Peak, is a star student at Whitelaw College, who wins many academic prizes and his future seems promising. Then his Cockney uncle arrives intending to open an eating-house adjacent to the college. Godwin is mortified of being associated with 'trade' and leaves the college rather than face the scorn he expects to receive from his upper-class fellow students. This is indicative of his social aspirations and snobbery.

Godwin leaves his lowly Midlands home to carve out a career as a journalist in London. His poverty and origins hamper him but finally one of his articles, attacking the hypocrisy of the Victoria Church, is accepted. Then catastrophically, he falls in love with devout, well-born young lady. To be acceptable to her, both socially and ideologically, he must enter the Church.

Excerpt from Born in Exile: A Novel Why don't you clap?' asked his sister, who, girl like, was excited to warmth of cheek and brightness of eye by the enthusiasm about her. That kind of thing is out of da'te, ' replied the young man, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Born in Exile is a novel by George Gissing first published in 1892.[1] It deals with the themes of class, religion, love and marriage. The premise of the novel is drawn from Gissing's own early life - an intellectually superior man born into a socially inferior milieu, though the story arc diverges significantly from the actuality.