# Edith Carter — New Grub Street character guide

> Edith Carter in New Grub Street by George Gissing.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Carter, Edith

**First appearance:** 0009-x-the-friends-of-the-family

## Snapshot

Amy's vivacious intimate, she furnishes her boudoir with fashionable prettiness and listens to advanced talk of divorce with amused, imitative daring.

## Who they are

Edith Carter has made herself Amy Reardon's closest friend, receiving her in a tiny boudoir crowded with affordable ornaments and treating her husband Albert as an authority on domestic taste. When Amy airs her radical views on marriage and divorce, Edith murmurs assent and laughs more naturally than her friend, half-convinced and half-entertained by ideas she would never originate. Her comfortable conventionality, lightly brushed by Amy's discontent, throws into relief the gulf between those who can afford to theorize about escape and those actually trapped.

## Relationships

### [Amy Reardon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/characters/amy_reardon)

_friendship_

Amy confides in Edith Carter as a friend and confidante, especially regarding her marital troubles and social ambitions.

### [Amy Reardon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/characters/amy_reardon)

_friendship_

Amy confides in Edith Carter as a friend and confidante, especially regarding her marital troubles and social ambitions.

### [Amy Reardon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/characters/amy_reardon)

_friendship_

Amy confides in Edith Carter as a friend and confidante, especially regarding her marital troubles and social ambitions.

## In the story

### [X: The Friends of the Family](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/chapters/x-the-friends-of-the-family)

Edith visits Amy and tries to maintain their friendship, but Amy is evasive about social invitations. Edith is lively and sociable, contrasting with Amy's withdrawn state.

### [Married Woman's Property](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/chapters/xxvi-married-woman-s-property)

Listens to Amy's critique of novels and love, and asks about Albert's potential role in communicating with Reardon.

### [XXXII: Reardon Becomes Practical](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/chapters/xxxii-reardon-becomes-practical)

Invited Amy to Brighton; her mother's house is where the events take place.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/characters/edith_carter
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_grub_street_se/characters