Syuzhet

The syuzhet map displays a roughly wheel-like pattern, with the Snowdons’ lodgings at the centre. The multiple loops match the plot itself: the narrative of The Nether World, like the Inferno to which it alludes, is spatially and diegetically contained within a cyclical configuration. The novel begins and ends in a graveyard. It is also a narrative of homecoming: Michael Snowdon, Joseph Snowdon, and Clara Hewett, natives of Clerkenwell, all return only to decline. The settings may recall Dickens – the City, Clerkenwell, the lure of the countryside – but the way the plot moves through them is different. Oliver Twist is concerned with journeys to and fro, and, ultimately, Oliver’s ‘progress’. Gissing’s plot loops around Clerkenwell via direct connection, and jumps out to outlying topoi (Crystal Palace, Danbury, Bolton).