Before he was 21 George Gissing conceived the ambition of writing a long series of novels, somewhat in the manner of Balzac, whom he admired. The first of these, Workers in the...

The Jubilee marks the fiftieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria. Dickensian in its sweeping scope of London life, Gissing’s "In the Year of the Jubilee" (1834) depicts the...

Gissing's own life takes a turn for the better and this novel reflects a more optimistic view of life with such prominent themes as spiritual life, importance of love in life,...

Godwin Peak, is a star student at Whitelaw College. He wins many academic prizes and his future seems promising. Then his Cockney uncle arrives intending to open an eating-house...

Milvain, one of the two central characters of the novel is a modern young man driven by pure financial ambition in navigating his literary career. He accepts that he will always...

Richard Mutimer is a young lower-class working-man who unexpectedly inherits a large fortune. He becomes the leader of a socialist movement and decides to use his inheritance to...

Eve's Ransom is the story of a mechanical draughtsman named Maurice Hilliard, who comes into some money, which enables him to live without working. As part of his resulting...

The story of the romantic and sexual initiation of a suburban heroine, Nancy Lord which Gissing wrote after his return from Exeter. He took lodgings with his second wife at 76...

Michael Snowdon inherits a substantial sum of money from his deceased son and decides to return from Australia to London. He spends only on necessities and lives like a poor man...

Denzil Quarrier, a successful, active man, becomes a candidate for Parliament, and, in the moment of triumph, is stricken by the treachery of his best friend, the meaningless...