About George Gissing
The late Victorian novelist, George Gissing, was born in Wakefield in 1857. His childhood was spent in the Wakefield. His father, Thomas Gissing, a chemist, had a shop where the Nat West Bank is today at the top of Westgate, and the family lived in Thompson’s Yard.
Upon his father’s death, at the age of thirteen, George and his brothers were moved away to school in Cheshire. Disgraced as a result of a liaison with a girl whilst a student at Owen’s College, Manchester, George was sent to America at nineteen. Four years later he returned to London to live. George’s mother, sisters and younger brother remained in Wakefield and George corresponded with them and sometimes visited. Gissing used Wakefield as a main location in his novel ‘A Life’s Morning’, and aspects of the town he knew appear in other novels.
He wrote 23 novels, many short stories, a study of Dickens and a memoire of a journey on the Ionian Sea. He is recognized as one of the most accomplished ‘realist’ writers of the late-Victorian period.
Some of his best-known novels
New Grub Street
1891
This is generally regarded as Gissing’s finest novel. It is set in the literary and journalistic circles of 1880s London which Gissing himself experienced, following the lives of a contrasting pair of writers as they try to make a living.
“ The art of living is the art of compromise.”
“ Flippancy, the most hopeless form of intellectual vice, was a characterising note of Mr Fadge’s periodical.”
“ My mistake was that of numberless men nowadays. Because I was conscious of brains, I thought that the only place for me was London.”
The Odd Women
1893
One of his most popular novels, its theme is the role of women in late-Victorian society, dealing with marriage, morals and the early feminist movement. The book follows two women who forge independent lives when they fail to find husbands.
“ . . . the love of a man and a woman who can think intelligently may be the best thing life has to offer them.”
“ A womanly occupation means, practically, an occupation that a man disdains.”
“ Like most men of his kind, he viewed religion as a precious and powerful instrument for directing the female conscience.”
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
1903
Written near the end of Gissing’s life this is a haunting semi-fictional autobiographical work, covering an ageing
writer’s year.
“ Time is money says the proverb, but turn it round about and you get a precious truth – money is time.”
“ I am no botanist, but I have long found pleasure in herb- gathering. I love to come upon a plant which is unknown to me, to identify it with the help of my book, to greet it by its name when next it shines in my path.”
George Gissing: A Life in Brief
1857 Born in Wakefield, son of Thomas Waller Gissing, chemist
1870 Sent to Lindow Grove School, Cheshire, after the death of his father
1876 Imprisoned for theft and expelled from Owens College, Manchester
1876-1877 Lived in the United States
1879 Married his mistress, Nell Harrison
1880 Published ‘Workers in the Dawn’, the first of more than twenty novels
1883 Marriage to Nell broke down
1888 Nell died; published ‘A Life’s Morning’
1890 Published ‘The Emancipated’
1891 Married Edith Underwood; son Walter born; published ‘New Grub Street’
1893 Published ‘The Odd Women’
1896 Son Alfred born
1896-1898 Marriage to Edith broke down
1898 Met Gabrielle Fleury
1899 Lives with Gabrielle in Paris
1903 ‘The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft’ published; died at St Jean Pied de Port
1904 ‘Veranilda’ published
Gissing Novels
1880 Workers in the Dawn
1884 The Unclassed
1885 Isabel Clarendon
1886 Demos
1887 Thyrza
1888 A Life’s Morning
1889 The Nether World
1891 New Grub Street
1892 Denzil Quarrier
1892 Born in Exile
1893 The Odd Women
1894 In the Year of Jubilee
1895 Eve’s Ransom
1895 The Paying Guest
1895 Sleeping Fires
1897 The Whirlpool
1898 The Town Traveller
1899 The Crown of Life
1901 Our Friend the Charlatan
1903 The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 1903
1904 Veranilda (unfinished. Will Warburton published posthumously.)
Short story collections and other writing
1898 Human Odds and Ends
1901 By the Ionian Sea
1906 The House of Cobwebs and other Stories
1914 Letters to Edward Clodd
1915 Letters to an Editor
1924 The Sins of the Fathers and Other Tales
1925 The Immortal Dickens
1927 A Victim of Circumstance and Other Stories
1928 A Yorkshire Lass
1931 Brownie and six other stories from the Chicago Tribune
1938 Stories and Sketches, preface by Alfred C Gissing
1970 Essays and Fiction
1970 My First Rehearsal and My Clerical Rival
Selected stories from other volumes
1893 "Lou and Liz," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. X.
1894 "Our Mr. Jupp," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XI.
1894 "The Pessimist of Plato Road," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XII.
1894 "A Capitalist," The National Review, Vol. XXIII.
1895 "The Poet's Portmanteau," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XII.
1895 "In Honour Bound," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XIII.
1896 "The Foolish Virgin," The Yellow Book, Vol. VIII, January
1896 "Great Men in Little Worlds," Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XV
1897 "The Light on the Tower," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XVI
1897 "Spellbound," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XVIII
1898 "One Way of Happiness," The English Illustrated Review, Vol. XIX
1898 "A Despot on Tour," Strand Magazine, Vol. XV
1923 “An Heiress on Condition” Issued by the Pennell Club, Philadephia, No 6 of 48