One of the greatest novels to have come from the 19th Century, a realistic gritty exposure of the lives, loves, intrigue and rivalry that existed in the literary world of London. The art form and culture of writing is becoming a business, expanding rapidly, and profit is more important than integrity of purpose.
In the search for a wider readership, editors and publishers look to the poorer educated classes believing that shorter, slighter commercial treatments will sell and thus erudite writers with serious ideas and ‘urgent messages for the world’ have their work devalued.
‘Instead of Chat I should call it Chit-Chat….it would sell like hot cakes. On the same principle…….if the Tatler were changed to Tittle-Tattle it’s circulation would be trebled…An admirable idea! Tittle-Tattle -a magnificent title; the very thing to catch the multitude’
The downward intellectual spiral is of course contrasted by the progress of lightweight, jobbing writers able to turn their pen, with ease, to any task and supply copy with trite, popular appeal.
Gissing knew his subject well and his characterization of the facile, unscrupulous Milvain, the rancorous Yule, the paranoid and impoverished Reardon all have the note of authenticity as do the women used and abused by them in their struggle for success and the publication of their work.
Truly one of the books from which we should learn, monumental in the telling, the story is an engrossing tale, describing a shabby Pyrrhic victory, at the expense of all those with a reasoning mind, of self advertisement over artistic endeavor in an ongoing war- of what happens when pen meets penury.
This story will capture and uplift the hearts of every listener.
This bitter 1891 tale illustrates the cry of struggling writer, Reardon, as his life disintegrates: ‘to make a trade of an art is a brutal folly’. Unable to squander his talent and write saleable ephemera’ Reardon drags himself and his wife into abject poverty. Superb narration.
George Robert Gissing (1857–1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.
Humplebee tells the tale of a young man of the same name who, in his youth, saves the life of his schoolfellow, Leonard Chadwick, who falls through thin ice on a winter pond. The gratitude of Chadwick and in particular his friend's wealthy industrialist father lead everyone, in particular Humplebee's parents, to assume he will from then on have a great financial benefactor. Chadwick senior even appears to promise such generosity and initially employs Humplebee as a clerk in his business.
As things transpire, the promise of generous patronage is a curse to the Humplebee family. Humplebee hates the clerkship and all the more so because to take up the position he had to forego the opening at the Natural History museum, which he would have truly loved. Humplebee's parents attempt to expand their business on the promise of the Chadwick capital, but their business fails, and Chadwick refuses to bail them out.
But Leonard Chadwick reappears on the scene and appears to be about to rescue Humplebee's fortunes. And just in the nick of time because Humplebee is in love and in desperate need of financial stability in order to propose to his beloved. And then something completely unexpected and devastating happens which puts Humplebee's character and relationship to the test....
George Robert Gissing (1857-1903) was a popular English novelist and short-story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.
The Scrupulous Father is an unusual love story set in the world of stifling Victorian propriety. Rose, the only daughter of the highly respectable and class obsessed Mr. Wiston, is drawn to a young, redheaded clerk at an inn while she is on holiday. The young man is outgoing, cheerful, and free of all the petty rules and inhibitions which dominate her own life.
When the young man joins Rose and her father in the railway carriage on their way back to London, Rose contrives to have a few moments alone with the young man. During this time she commits the unthinkable...and when her father finds out, Rose is faced with the greatest trial of her life.
George Robert Gissing (1857-1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. The Salt of the Earth is the poignant story of an overly kind-hearted, generous, and devoted clerk whose good nature and lack of self-assertion invites the exploitation of all around him.
George Robert Gissing (1857-1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.
The House of Cobwebs is the story of an emerging friendship between two unlikely housemates: a young, struggling novelist and his landlord, a middle-aged retired assistant chemist who has inherited three dilapidated houses which are most definitely not fit for human habitation.
George Robert Gissing (1857-1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. His works often reflect the struggle for existence in a hostile world and the many (often tragic) compromises which are made along the way.
In this setting his often complex and endearing characters battle for their own love or artistic integrity, which poverty or social morals threaten to stifle.
Humplebee
The Pig and Whistle
A Poor Gentleman
The Scrupulous Father
The Salt of the Earth
The House of Cobwebs
George Robert Gissing was born on November 22nd, 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent. By the age of ten he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero.In 1872 Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876.On release he decided to start over. In September 1876 he travelled to the United States. Here he wrote short stories for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. On his return home he was ready for novels.Gissing self-published his first novel but it failed to sell. His second was acquired but never published. His writing career was static. Something had to change. And it did.By 1884 The Unclassed was published. Now everything he wrote was published. Both Isabel Clarendon and Demos appeared in 1886. He mined the lives of the working class as diligently as any capitalist.In 1889 Gissing used the proceeds from the sale of The Nether World to go to Italy. This trip formed the basis for his 1890 work The Emancipated.Gissing's works began to command higher payments. New Grub Street (1891) brought a fee of £250. Short stories followed and in 1895, three novellas were published; Eve's Ransom, The Paying Guest and Sleeping Fires. Gissing was careful to keep up with the changing attitudes of his audience. Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. The last years of his life were spent as a semi-invalid in France but he continued to write. 1899; The Crown of Life. Our Friend the Charlatan appeared in 1901, followed two years later by The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft.George Robert Gissing died aged 46 on December 28th, 1903 after catching a chill on a winter walk. This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing. Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.
This novel consists of selections from the diary of an author, starting soon after his retirement and continuing until just before his death. There is very little in the way of plot, but a great deal of quiet musing about art, nature, society, and the things that make life worth living. Although this is a work of fiction, there are clear parallels between the narrator's life and Gissing's own life. This leads many commenters to view it as semi-autobiographical. George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880 and also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.
The Jubilee marks the fiftieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria. Dickensian in its sweeping scope of London life, Jubilee depicts the harsh and disreputable conditions of lower-middle class life at the end of the 19th century. George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880 and also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.
George Gissing's 1893 novel takes on the 19th century "Woman Question" by looking at themes of feminism, marriage, and love. The novel raises these issues through the lives of several contrasting women: Mary Barfoot, a feminist philanthropist who helps train women for careers; her close friend Rhoda Nunn, who believes marriage is a disastrous choice for women; and Monica Madden, who starts out as one of their protegees but chooses to marry a seemingly kind older man. As Monica experiences the challenges of married life, Rhoda finds herself drawn to Mary's cousin, the charming but apparently profligate Everard. George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880 and also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life.
George Robert Gissing was born on November 22nd, 1857 in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield. Gissing loved school. He was enthusiastic with a thirst for learning and always diligent. By the age of ten he was reading Dickens, a lifelong hero.In 1872 Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College. Whilst there Gissing worked hard but remained solitary. Unfortunately, he had run short of funds and stole from his fellow students. He was arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, expelled and sentenced to a month's hard labour in 1876. On release he decided to start over. In September 1876 he travelled to the United States. Here he wrote short stories for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. On his return home he was ready for novels. Gissing self-published his first novel but it failed to sell. His second was acquired but never published. His writing career was static. Something had to change. And it did.By 1884 The Unclassed was published. Now everything he wrote was published. Both Isabel Clarendon and Demos appeared in 1886. He mined the lives of the working class as diligently as any capitalist.In 1889 Gissing used the proceeds from the sale of The Nether World to go to Italy. This trip formed the basis for his 1890 work The Emancipated.Gissing's works began to command higher payments. New Grub Street (1891) brought a fee of £250. Short stories followed and in 1895, three novellas were published; Eve's Ransom, The Paying Guest and Sleeping Fires. Gissing was careful to keep up with the changing attitudes of his audience. Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed as suffering from emphysema. The last years of his life were spent as a semi-invalid in France but he continued to write. 1899; The Crown of Life. Our Friend the Charlatan appeared in 1901, followed two years later by The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft.George Robert Gissing died aged 46 on December 28th, 1903 after catching a chill on a winter walk.
George Robert Gissing (1857-1903) was a popular English novelist and short story writer who also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. His works often reflect the struggle for existence in a hostile world and the many (often tragic) compromises which are made along the way.
In this setting his often complex and endearing characters battle for their own love or artistic integrity, which poverty or social morals threaten to stifle.
Humplebee
The Pig and Whistle
A Poor Gentleman
The Scrupulous Father
The Salt of the Earth
The House of Cobwebs
