A year of celebration and, for the young Londoners of De Crespigny Park and Grove Lane, a year to experience the world of adult society. Nancy Lord finds a new restlessness and years for independence. Yet what unexpected events follow, and to what lengths must she go to prove her strength and to guard her precious secret. Horace Lord's dreams of a life of leisure seem fulfilled when a long-lost aunt appears, eager to indulge him. But the mysterious woman hides a darker past, and after the Jubilee it is time to face the consequences of innocent pleasures and frivolous pursuits.
The novel presents a supporting cast of up-to-the-minute (for 1887) characters - Beatrice French, the cigarette-smoking business woman; Jessica Morgan, the "examination girl"; and Luckworth Crewe, the first ad man in English literature.
This is the most comprehensive edition available, with introduction, notes, selected criticism, text summary and chronology of Gissing's life and times.
