New Grub Street is a British novel by George Gissing published in 1891, which is set in the literary and journalistic circles of 1880s London.

[2] The novel's two central characters are a sharply contrasted pair of writers: Edwin Reardon, a novelist of some talent but limited commercial prospects, and a shy, cerebral man; and Jasper Milvain, a young journalist, hard-working and capable of generosity, but cynical and only semi-scrupulous about writing and its purpose in the modern (i.e. late Victorian) world.

The story opens with Milvain, an "alarmingly modern young man" driven by pure financial ambition in navigating his literary career.

He accepts that he will "always despise the people [he] write[s] for," networks within the appropriate social circle to create opportunity, and authors articles for popular periodicals.

You, of all men, know well enough that the same kind of feeling could be produced for almost any woman who wasn't repulsive.A new motivation for Milvain manifests itself in the form of a legacy of £5,000 left to Marian by John Yule.

She, besides the receipt of £10,000 upon John Yule's death, has the natural beauty and grace to benefit a man in the social events beneficial to his career.