Milvain, one of the two central characters of the novel is a modern young man driven by pure financial ambition in navigating his literary career. He accepts that he will always despise the people he writes for, networks within the appropriate social circle to create opportunity, and authors articles for popular periodicals. Reardon prefers to write novels of a more literary bent and refuses to pander to contemporary tastes until, as a last-gasp measure against financial ruin, he attempts a popular novel.George Robert Gissing was an English novelist, a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He failed to get his first novel accepted by a publisher, and so published it privately, funding it with money from an inheritance. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880 and later produced over twenty novels during his literary career becoming one of the most popular writers.