Room at the Top (novel) death and his successful scheme to marry upwards. He is reassured that nobody blames him for Alice's death – but he knows this is wrong, and the book closes with him aware of his conscience, forced to live with his guilt and his responsibility for what has happened. Room at the Top (novel) Room at the Top is a novel by John Braine, first published in the United Kingdom by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1957, about the rise of an ambitious young man of humble origin, and the socio-economic struggles undergone in realising his social ambitions in post-war Britain. A
English novel characters of low social standing, not nobility. Another significant late 19th-century novelist is George Gissing (1857–1903) who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best known novel is "New Grub Street" (1891). Important developments occurred in genre fiction in this era. Although pre-dated by John Ruskin's "The King of the Golden River" in 1841, the history of the modern fantasy genre is generally said to begin with George MacDonald, the influential author of "The Princess and the Goblin" and "Phantastes" (1858). William Morris was a popular English poet who also wrote several fantasy novels during the latter part of