Topoi

The highly complex topoi map makes clear just how spatially involved The Nether World is. It has been suggested, sometimes disparagingly, that Gissing’s novel lacks a clear protagonist. But reading the novel’s structure spatially (instead of through character alone) registers the Snowdons’ lodgings firmly at the centre. It is the largest node – because it contains more action than any other topos – and the most connected. Other sites of home also dominate the map. So, although The Nether World is often characterised as Gissing’s most ‘working-class’ novel there is, in fact, very little space devoted to labour.