# The Whirlpool

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/george-gissing/the-whirlpool/9780141395654

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![The Whirlpool](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/george-gissing/the-whirlpool_978-01-4139-565-4.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2018%3A08%3A16)

- Book: [The Whirlpool](https://www.bookquiver.com/george-gissing/the-whirlpool) ([The Whirlpool.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/george-gissing/the-whirlpool.md))
- Authors: [George Gissing](https://www.bookquiver.com/george-gissing)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-01-4139-565-4
- Published: 2015-02-05
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

'Marriage rarely means happiness, either for man or woman; if it be not too grievous to be borne, one must thank the fates and take courage'. The greatest of English realist novelists, famous for New Grub Street , George Gissing creates in The Whirlpool an astonish picture of characters caught in the vortex of London, struggling to understand how they can make sense of their lives in a society of remorseless faithlessness and social snobbery. A whole era is magnificently brought to life in all its glamour and squalor - and at the book's heart lies one of the most remarkable figures in English literature: Alma Rolfe, torn between an idyll of rural domesticity and her career in London as a musician.