<p>George Gissing's 'The Nether World' is a vivid and painstaking portrayal of the destitution and struggle in London's bleak underside during the dawn of the 20th century. Gissing's realist approach to storytelling brings to life the oppressive atmosphere of Clerkenwell, capturing the precarity of its inhabitants with unflinching detail. Through a clear, yet compellingly complex prose, he exposes the reader to the myriad tribulations of those tr...