George Gissing
Personal Information
Description
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. Although his early works are naturalistic, he developed into one of the the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, to lower-middle class parents, Gissing went on to win a scholarship to Owens College, the present day Victoria University of Manchester. A brilliant student, he excelled at university, winning many coveted prizes, including the Shakespeare scholarship prize in 1875. Between 1891 and 1897, he produced his best works, which include New Grub Street, Born in Exile, The Odd Women, In the Year of Jubilee, and The Whirlpool. By the end of the century, critics placed him with Thomas Hardy and George Meredith as one of three leading novelists in England. He was friends with H. G. Wells and his wife. Source [Wikipedia](
Books
Romance
Selected English Short Stories (Nineteenth Century)
Scott, Sir Walter. The two drovers. Wandering Willie's tale. Lamb, Charles. The witch aunt. Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The snow image. The threefold destiny. [Dr. Heidegger's experiment]( Howe's masquerade. Disraeli, Benjamin. Ixion in heaven. Poe, E.A. [Fall of the House of Usher]( [Pit and the Pendulum]( [Eleonora]( Gaskell, Elizabeth C. The squire's story. Brown, Dr. John. Rab and his friends. Dickens, Charles. The seven poor travellers. Trollope, Anthony. Malachi's cove. Meredith, George. The punishment of Shahpesh, the Persian, on Khipil, the builder. White, W.H. Mr Whittaker's retirement. Morris, William. The story of the unknown church. Garnett, Richard. The dumb oracle. Harte, F.B. Miggles. Tennessee's partner. The Iliad of Sandy Bar. Mliss. Stevenson, R.L. Markheim. Thrawn Janet. Providence and the guitar. Gissing, George. Christopherson. Coleridge, Mary. The king is dead, long live the king. Crackenthorpe, Hubert. Saint-Pé.
Collected Works of George Gissing on Charles Dickens
One thing to be learnt from every page of the biography is the strenuous spirit in which Dickens wrought. Whatever our judgment as to the result, his zeal and energy were those of the born artist. Passages numberless might be quoted from his letters, showing how he enjoyed the labour of production, how he threw himself into the imaginative world with which he was occupied, how impossible it was for him to put less than all his splendid force into the task of the moment.
The private papers of Henry Ryecroft
The book is unusually divided into four seasons instead of chapters and represents a semi-fictional autobiographical work by George Gissing in which the author casts himself as the editor of the diary of a deceased acquaintance, selecting essays for posthumous publication. Observing how suitable many of the reflections were to the month with which they were dated.
The odd women
Five odd women—women without husbands—are the subject of this powerful novel, graphically set in Victorian London, by a writer whose perceptions about people, particularly women, would be remarkable in any age and are extraordinary in the 1890's. The story concerns the choices that five different women make or are forced to make, and what those choices imply about men's and women's place in society and relationship to each other. Alice and Virginia Madden, suddenly left adrift by the death of their improvident father, must take grinding and humiliating "genteel" work. Pretty, vulnerable, and terrified of sharing their fate, their younger sister Monica accepts a proposal of marriage from a man who gives her financial security but drives her to reckless action by his insane jealousy. Interwoven with their fortunes are Mary Barfoot and Rhoda Nunn, who are dedicating their lives to training young women for independent and useful lives, for emotional as well as economic freedom. Feminine and spirited, they are seeking not to overthrow men but to free both sexes from everything that distorts or depletes their humanity—including, if necessary, marriage. Into their lives comes Mary's engaging and forceful cousin Everard Barfoot, and as he and Rhoda become locked in an increasingly significant and passionate struggle, Rhoda finds out through the refining fire what "love" sometimes means, and what it means to be true to herself. It is best to check out the link to "things mean a lot" for a good review of this book.
In the year of jubilee
Nancy Lord, an accomplished modern London woman of the 1890's finds that life can have unexpected complications when she falls in love with the wayward Lionel Tarrant.
The Paying Guest
A young and manipulative young woman turns her hosts' pretty, middle class, suburban home and lives upside down when she enters it as their paying guest. A short, lively satire full of humour, one of Gissing's most successful novellas.