George Gissing Popular Books
George Gissing Biography & Facts
George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. In the 1890s he was considered one of the three greatest novelists in England, and by the 1940s he had been recognised as a literary genius. Gissing's best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891) and The Odd Women (1893). He retains a small but devoted group of followers. Biography Early life Gissing was born on 22 November 1857 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the eldest of five children of Thomas Waller Gissing, who ran a chemist's shop, and Margaret (née Bedford). His siblings were: William, who died aged twenty; Algernon, who became a writer; Margaret; and Ellen. His childhood home in Thompson's Yard, Wakefield, is maintained by The Gissing Trust. Gissing was educated at Back Lane School in Wakefield, where he was a diligent and enthusiastic student. His serious interest in books began at the age of ten when he read The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens and subsequently, encouraged by his father and inspired by the family library, his literary interest grew. Juvenilia written at this time was published in 1995 in The Poetry of George Gissing. He was also skilled at drawing. Gissing's father died when he was 12 years old, and he and his brothers were sent to Lindow Grove School at Alderley Edge in Cheshire, where he was a solitary student who studied hard. In 1872, after an exceptional performance in the Oxford Local Examinations, Gissing won a scholarship to Owens College, the forerunner of the Victoria University of Manchester, subsequently merged with University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to form the University of Manchester. There he continued his intense studies, and won many prizes, including the Poem Prize in 1873 and the Shakespeare scholarship in 1875. He also began a relationship with Marianne "Nell" Harrison. When he ran short of money and stole from his fellow students, Gissing's academic career ended in disgrace. The college hired a detective to investigate the thefts, and Gissing was prosecuted, found guilty, expelled, and sentenced to a month's hard labour in Belle Vue Gaol, Manchester, in 1876. In September 1876, with support from sympathisers, he travelled to the United States, where he spent time in Boston and Waltham, Massachusetts, writing and teaching classics. When his money ran out, he moved to Chicago, where he earned a precarious living writing short stories for newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune. He lived in poverty until he met a travelling salesman in need of an assistant, and Gissing demonstrated his products. These experiences partially inspired his 1891 novel, New Grub Street. In September 1877, Gissing left America and returned to England. Literary career After returning to England, Gissing settled in London with Nell, writing fiction and working as a private tutor. He failed to get his first novel Workers in the Dawn accepted by a publisher and published it privately, funding it with money from an inheritance. Gissing married Nell on 27 October 1879. Their marriage was plagued with poverty and they were frequently separated while Nell was hospitalised for poor health. One of his friends was a fellow author and Owens College alumnus Morley Roberts, who wrote a novel based on Gissing's life, The Private Life of Henry Maitland, in 1912. He was friends with Eduard Bertz, a German socialist with whom he became acquainted in 1879. Gissing spent much time reading classical authors at the British Museum Reading Room, as well as coaching students for examinations. He took long walks through the streets of London observing the poor. In his reading, John Forster's Life of Dickens particularly interested him. He wrote in his diary entry for 23 January 1888 that Forster's work was "a book I constantly take up for impulse, when work at a standstill'. According to his pupil Austin Harrison, from 1882 Gissing made a decent living by teaching; tales of a fight with poverty, including some of his own remembrances, were untrue. Gissing often claimed poverty to his family, whom he largely supported, in order to discourage them from asking for assistance, and the issue of his supposed poverty may be explained by Gissing's attitude to teaching, which he felt to be an inferior profession, somewhat beneath him. He was also guilty of extravagance and poor management of his finances. Gissing's next novel, Mrs Grundy's Enemies, remained unpublished like the first, although bought for publication by Bentley & Son in 1882. George Bentley decided against publishing it despite revisions that Gissing made. Before his next novel, The Unclassed, was published in 1884, Gissing and his wife separated, largely because Gissing would not give the time and energy to support her through increasingly chronic ill-health. He continued to pay a small alimony until her death in 1888. Between his return to England and publication of The Unclassed, Gissing wrote 11 short stories, but only "Phoebe" appeared at the time, in the March 1884 issue of Temple Bar. The years after the publication of The Unclassed brought great literary activity. Isabel Clarendon and Demos appeared in 1886; Demos began a relationship with Smith, Elder & Co., which published him until New Grub Street in 1891. The novels he wrote in this period depict a conservative view of the working class. Gissing used £150 earned from the rights to The Nether World in 1889 to fund a long-awaited trip to Italy to pursue his interest in the classics. His experiences there formed a basis for the 1890 work The Emancipated. On 25 February 1891, Gissing married another working-class woman, Edith Alice Underwood. They settled in Exeter but moved to Brixton in June 1893 and Epsom in 1894. They had two children, Walter Leonard (1891–1916) and Alfred Charles Gissing (1896–1975), but the marriage was unsuccessful. Edith did not understand his work and Gissing insisted on keeping them socially isolated from his peers, which exacerbated the problems. Whereas Nell was too sick to complain about his controlling behaviour, some historians believe Edith stood up to him argumentatively. She may have gone into violent, uncontrolled rages as Gissing claimed in letters to Bertz, but the truth is elusive at this distance in time. Gissing took revenge (or acted to protect their older child from continual violent assaults, since he stated in letters his safety was in danger) in April 1896, when Walter was spirited away without Edith's knowledge and sent to stay with Gissing's sisters in Wakefield. Gissing pleaded Edith's violence, but he strongly disliked the way she presented him to his son. Alfred, the younger child, remained with his mother. The couple separated in 1897, though this was no clean break - Gissing spent time dodging Edith and afraid she might seek a reconciliation. In 1902, Edit.... Discover the George Gissing popular books. Find the top 100 most popular George Gissing books.
Best Seller George Gissing Books of 2024
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Isabel Clarendon
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first...
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Veranilda
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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George Gissing
Martin RyleOnce seen as a relatively marginal figure, George Gissing (18571903) persists in sparking interest among new generations of radical critics who continue to be inspired by his work ...
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The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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George Gissing, the Working Woman, and Urban Culture
Emma LigginsGeorge Gissing's work reflects his observations of findesiècle London life. Influenced by the French naturalist school, his realist representations of urban culture testify to the ...
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Miss Marjoribanks
Margaret Oliphant & Elisabeth JayReturning home to tend her widowed father Dr Marjoribanks, Lucilla soon launches herself into Carlingford society, aiming to raise the tone with her select Thursday evening parties...
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The Golden Age of British Short Stories 1890-1914
Philip Hensher'Excellent, entertaining and ingenious ... from Oscar Wilde to Arthur Conan Doyle, this fine anthology celebrates one of the richest moments in Britain's literary history' Sunday T...
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New Grub Street
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first...
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The Woman Question and George Gissing
James HaydockEven though his books never sold as well as those of more popular novelists, women in particular liked George Gissings work and often wrote to him for advice. They could see he was...
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New Grub Street
George GissingNew Grub Street George Gissing New Grub Street is a novel by George Gissing published in 1891, which is set in the literary and journalistic circles of 1880s London. Gissing revis...
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Collected Articles on George Gissing
Pierre CoustillasFirst Published in 1968. In the English literary production of the eighteen eighties and nineties, George Gissing stands as an important figure. The rising interest in him since th...
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Relations
Jane MillerIn this remarkable book, Jane Miller writes about the experience of being a daughter and a sister, about the intensities of family life and the illuminations that come from the las...
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In the Year of Jubilee
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first...
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George Gissing
Martin Ryle & Jenny Bourne TaylorFirst published in 2005, this collection of essays brings together British, European and North American literary critics and cultural historians with diverse specialities and inter...
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Essential Novelists - Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline & August NemoWelcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...
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Essential Novelists - Leonard Merrick
Leonard Merrick & August NemoWelcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...
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George Gissing and the Woman Question
Christine Huguet & Simon J. JamesApproaching its subject both contextually and comparatively, George Gissing and the Woman Question reads Gissing's novels, short stories and personal writings as a crux in Euro...
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Human Odds and Ends stories and sketches
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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The Heroic Life of George Gissing, Part II
Pierre CoustillasThis ambitious threevolume biography on Gissing examines both his life and writing both chronologically and in close detail. Part II assesses the period of Gissing’s greatest autho...
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Essential Novelists - George Gissing
George Gissing & August NemoWelcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...
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The Nether World
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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Demos
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first...
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Essential Novelists - Frank L. Packard
Frank L. Packard & August NemoWelcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...
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7 best short stories by George Gissing
George Gissing & August NemoGeorge Gissing was an English writer noted for the unflinching realism of his novels about the lower middle class.His work is seriousthough not without a good deal of comic observa...
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George Gissing
Pierre Coustillas & Collin PartridgeThe Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling stu...
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Born in Exile
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first...
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The Crown of Life
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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The Conservative Mind
Russell Kirk"It is inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without Kirk's labor." WILLIAM F BUCKLEY "A profound critique of co...
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The Whirlpool
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first ...
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Ruth
Elizabeth GaskellRuth Hilton is an orphaned young seamstress who catches the eye of a gentleman, Henry Bellingham, who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. When she loses her job and home, h...
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Their Portraits in My Books
James HaydockGeorge Gissing's books, published during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, are memorable for their portraits of women. Only a few women played active roles in his...
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Denzil Quarrier
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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The Heroic Life of George Gissing, Part III
Pierre CoustillasThis ambitious threevolume biography on Gissing examines both his life and writing both chronologically and in close detail. This final volume in Coustillas’s prodigious biography ...
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The Heroic Life of George Gissing, Part I
Pierre CoustillasThis ambitious threevolume biography on Gissing examines both his life and writing chronologically and in close detail. Part I covers Gissing’s early life up until his establishmen...
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Thyrza
George GissingNovelist, born at Wakefield. In his novels he depicted the environment and struggles of the lower and lower middle classes with a somewhat pessimistic and depressing realism, altho...
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The Essential George Gissing Collection
George GissingCompiled in one book, the essential collection of books by George Gissing: Born in Exile By the Ionian Sea The Crown of Life Demos The Emancipated Eve's Ransom The House of Cobwebs...
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Will Warburton
George GissingGeorge Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first...
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Works of George Gissing
George Gissing21 works of George Gissing English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903 (18571903) This ebook presents a collection of 21 works of George Gissing. A dynamic table...
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Writing Place
Rebecca HutcheonExploring a hitherto neglected field, Writing Place: Mimesis, Subjectivity and Imagination in the Works of George Gissing is the first monograph to consider the works of George Gis...