George Gissing: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him: Supplement III

73 GEORGE GISSING: AN AiWOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WRlTlMGS ABOUT HIM: SUPPLEMENT III Annotated by Joseph J. Wolff (Loyola University, Chicago) [Note: The first annotated bibliography of this kind on Gissing, prepared by Jacob Korg, included a selected list of i terns published since 1340, and appeared in EFT, I: 1 (1957-58); the first supplement, prepared by Joseph J. Wolff, included mainly i terns published before 1940, and appeared in EFT, III: 2 (I960); the second supplement, prepared by Pierre Coustillas and Paul Goetsch, included mainly i terns in foreign journals not listed in our previous bibliographies, and was published in ELT, VII: 1 (1964). The present supplement includes i terns of all kinds not listed previously, especially many reviews of soie of the major works about Gissing and a number of recent articles and books. Reviews of books about Gissing are listed separately but referred to under the entry for the i tern reviewed. Thus, the entry for Royal A. Gettman's edition of the Gissing-WelIs letters includes references to reviews of this volume abstracted elsewhere in this bibliography. All unsigned annotations may be assumed to be by Joseph Wolff. Additional items, appropriately signed or initialed, have been supplied by Pierre Coustillas, H. E. Gerber, E. S. Lauterbach, Marie T. Tate, and Maisie K, Pearson, who this term lias been our second and most welcome graduate assistant. More I terns in German, Japanese, and elusive English journals will be listed in the future, as we locate copies and gather annotations from friends in widely separated parts of the world. There may, perhaps surprisingly, be enough such additional items to make a fourth supplement.—HEG.] Adams, Ruth M. "Reviews," VICTORIAN STUDIES, V (Mar 1362), 271-72. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS (<|v) and Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ (qv). Adams interprets the correspondence as showing G's "endless capacity for self-pity," although G has "real reasons for despair and depression." His self-pity "overflowed into three areas": "he could not find or mingle with his intellectual equals," "he could not rise higher on the social scale than the level of the hack writer," and "his books did not command an audience or bring in money." The tone of his letters "never strikes a completely objective note"; even his satisfaction in the relationship with Gabriel Ie "arose from the fact that she had the 'right' friends and acquaintances, the 'right' kind of family." Gabrielle's analysis of G is "amazingly perceptive." [HEG] Ausubel, Herman. IN HARD TIMES. NY: Columbia U P, I960. See index. This thoroughly documented study frequently cites G's biography, letters, and novels in recording the social, religious, political, and financial conditions of late 19th-century England. Baines, Jocelyn. JOSEPH CONRAD: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY. .VY: McGraw-Hill, 1959. P. 234. See [Conrad, Joseph.] JOSEPH CONRAD: LETTERS TOWILLIAM BLACIWOOD. . . . 74 Baker, Carlos. "World Within a World," NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 28 Mar 1954, p. 4. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv) G strongly believed that the artist had to keep apart from the world in order to preserve his artistic integrity, in order not to "sell out" to the Victorian reading public. To do this he had to create a '"world within the world.'" Donnelly's "short but thorough critical" biog shows G "as primarily a realist in search of a public." Complicating his search were two factors: his hatred of the age (which resulted in that unflinching realism which would, G hoped, make "the world safe for sincerity") and bis own tortured life, which included expulsion from college and two unhappy marriages. He "could neither fashion domestic quietude nor refashion the society in which he found himself." He wrote to make money, but would not compromise his "artistic integrity." "Enough of them [G's books] are worth reprinting to make a notable collection. The proletarian novels are still readable." Mentions THE WHIRLPOOL, NEW GRUB STREET, THE PRIVATE PAPERS QF HENRY RYECROFT, and G's Dickens Criticism favorably. Briefly sketches the facts of G's personal life which affected his literary career. [MTT] Bates, H. E. THE MODERN SHORT STORY: A CRITICAL SURVEY. Lond: Thomas Nelson, I943; Boston: Writer, IS49. P. II8. Writing about the short story in the closing years of the 19th century, Bates concludes that "no one of this class, except Wells, is going anywhere . . . Gissing is a minor echo of Dickens." Bennett, Arnold. See Wilson, Harris (ed). ARNOLD BENNETT & H. G. WELLS. . . . Bergonzi, Bernard. "Shabby Genteel," SPECTATOR, CCVIII (26 Jan 1962), II5-I6. Rev of Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ. . . .(qv), It is amazing that G's fame continues to hold, despite the fact that he remains "poor, isolated and misunderstood." In these letters G appears more preoccupied with the mechanics of authorship—publishers, costs, translations, etc—than with his art. If such letters can be printed, why must we wait for reprints of G's novels? Blackburn, William (ed). See [Conrad, Joseph.] JOSEPH CONRAD: LETTERS TO WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND DAVID S. MELDRUM. [Blair, Eric] See Orwell, George. Boll, T. E. M. "A Forgotten Poem of George Gissing," NOTES & QUERIES, VII (Dec I960), 465. Reproduces three-stanza "Song" from TEMPLE BAR for Nov 1883- [HEG] "Briefly Noted," NEW YORKER, XXX (M Sept 1954), 143-44. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . . (qv) An "earnest, naive, and pretty uncritical book." Brooks, Van Wyck. FROM A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK. NY: Dutton, 1953. Pp. 98-99. Identifies G among writers who thrive on their irritations. Brown, Malcolm. GEORGE MOORE: A RECONSIDERATION. Seattle: University of Washington P, 1955 P. 197. Moore despised several of his fellow novelists; some others—including G, Butler, and Wells—he simply ignored. Bryan, j[ohn]Ingram. THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Tokyo: Maruzen, I93O, 228-29. G represented turning away from Victorian sentimental ism. His interest in Schopenhauer "tinctured all his work with doubt and gloom." 75 He inclined to idealization of women; but he "fell into the slough of despond where sin and sorrow come to doubt the integrity of the universe." [ESL] Cazamian, Louis. A HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Trans by W. D. Maclnnes and the Author. NY: Macmillan, 1927, M, 428-31. Perceptive and thorough discussion of G's work in relation to his social and personal background and his temperament. Comparison of tone In G and Dickens; differences partly due to "the distinctive temper of two successive ages." Goes on to discuss style; heroes; influences, etc. [Pearson] "A Charm Against Francophobia," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 8 Apr I960, p. 224. See Starkle, Enid. FROM GAUTIER TO ELIOT. Cherry, D. R. "New Books," DALHOUSIE REVIEW, XXXIV (Summer 1954), 201, 203. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . . (qv), which is important because it clarifies and documents G's life and because it assesses G's position in the history of the English novel. Even though there are errors in fact and judgment, the book will bring deserved attention to G. ........ "The New Books," QUEEN'S QUARTERLY, LXVIII (Winter 1962), 696. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING & H. G. WELLS (qv). Surveying this collection of G's letters, we conclude that had G achieved detachment in his early years he might have written more satisfactory novels. The letters exhibit G's "obsession with matters of health, diet and climate." Chisholm, Cecil. "Foreword," THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT. Lond: Phoenix House; Toronto: Dent, 1953. Pp. 7-15. Tells how T. P. O'Connor championed RYECROFT in T. P.'S WEEKLY, explaining the appeal that the book makes among "young men and women who want to think for themselves," and places G in the history of the English novel. G helps link the "three volume novel of plot and grandiloquence of Bulwer Lytton, and the freshly observed, loosely constructed psychological novels of our own time." Chisholm's ed occasioned important reviews and comments such as the following (qv); Connolly, Cyril. "The Legacy of Gissing," LONDON SUNDAY TIMES, 25 Jan 1953, p. 5. "The Gissing Legend," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 30 Jan 1953, pi 74. 0'London, John [Frank Swinnerton]. "Letters from Gog and Magog," JOHN 0'LONDON'S WEEKLY, LXX (23 Jan 1953), 71. Collins, Clifford. "Other Recent Books," SPECTATOR,CXCIV (18 Mar 1955), 337. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . . (qv). While this study suffers because it was written in America, and is consequently out of touch with G's world, it points up the exactness with which G portrayed intellectual exile; the victim knows his own neurosis and his gifts. Connolly, Cyril. "The Legacy of Gissing," LONDON SUNDAY TIMES, 25 Jan 1953, p. 5. [Listed in EFT, III: 1 (1958), 28, but abstracted here.] Rev of Chisholm's "Foreword," THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT (qv), which is a "marvellous book," a legacy, a "daydream, a puritan's self-forgiveness on the edge of the grave, releasing the vision of an ideal life as seen by a tired, ill, impoverished, and unhappily married Londoner whose imaginative intensity gives an almost eerie quality to the daily round which he so realistically depicts." 76 [Conrad, Joseph.] JOSEPH CONRAD: LETTERS TO WILLIAfI BLACKWOOD AND DAVID S. MELDRUM. Ed by William Blackburn. Durham, NC: Duke U P, 1958. P. 173 and n. 2. 'n a letter to Clodd (as given in a letter from Conrad to Blackwood), G had praised YOUTH and other Conrad stories for their "Imaginative vigour, and such wonderful command of language." G reported in his own letters his visit to Pent Farm. [Also mentioned in Jocelyn Baine's JOSEPH CONRAD: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1959), p. 234, and in Gerard JeanAubry 's THE SEA-DREAMER (NY: Doubleday, 1957), p. 235. Jean-Aubry calls G "the naturalistic novelist."] Coustillas, Pierre. "Bibliographie," LES LANGUES MODERNES, LVM (Nov-Dec 1963), 594-95. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING (qv). Time is confirming G's own death-bed statement that his work would not be forgotten tomorrow. Korg's book is based on primary sources in The New York Public Library, The Yale University and the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library. Though G's most fervent admirers may find some of his judgments rather severe (that on ViORKERS IN THE DAWN and IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, for instance) one regrets Korg couldn't devote more space to criticism. Some errors have crept In: G's family heard of his "marriage" with Gabriel Ie Fleury in the summer of 1901 and not after his death. Besides, Korg wrongly repeats Morley Roberts' statement that THE CHURCH TIMES did not publish his letter of protest on the question of G's would-be conversation. In spite of such blemishes, Korg's biography is the best on the subject. [Coustillas]^ ...... "Information, Please," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 21 Dec 1962, p. 994. Letter to ed requesting information about unpub letters and MSS. ...... "Gissing's Commonplace Book," EFT, V: 4 (1962), 49-50. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING'S COMMONPLACE BOOK (qv). Praises Korg's intro, regrets that there are no annotations accompanying text, and finds parallels between the notebooks and the novels. ...... "Gissing's Feminine Portraiture," ELT, Vl: 3 (1963), 130-41. In this survey of G's novels, M. Coustillas impressively documents the parallels between G's relations with his mother, his sisters, and his wives, and his selection and representation of fictional heroines. If G's critics and biographers have repeatedly emphasized the autobiographical qualities of his books, no one has so carefully traced the degrees of G's frustration and underscored his choice and analysis of women, degrading women. Coustillas praises G for artistic success in representing women, claiming for the novelist a detachment of portraiture which previous scholars had been reluctant to award. This study demonstrates the range of G's selection of feminine leads; it claims great historical importance for his portraits. ...... "Reviews," EFT, V: 1 (1962), 63-64. Rev of Jameson's MORLEY ROBERTS. . . .(qv), which is a "biographical and psychological essay"—an expanded article—giving "a candid, often moving portrait of living with the ghosts of his wife and friends"; an- "essay in friendship," it retraces "with high emotional intensity Robert's [sic] human and philosophical conflicts. Though it treats the whole of his life and cannot be ignored by any student of Roberts, the book gives the essential image of Roberts as "a reticent, dignified, shabby old man," and another biog, treating Roberts' life up to middle age and treating less obscurely "some of his less savoury qualities" 77 (Roberts' treatment of Gissing in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY MAITLANO, for example), would be welcome. LMTT]^ ........ and Paul Goetsch. "George Gissing: An Annotated Bibliography About Him: Foreign Journals: Supplement II," ELT, VII: 1. (1964), 14-26. The emphasis of this bibliography of continental reviews, articles, and studies of G and his works falls upon, the closing years of his life and upon the 1960's. The work is particularly valuable In understanding G's reputation in France. Donnelly, Mabel W. Collins. GEORGE GISSING: GRAVE COMEDIAN. Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1954; Toronto: Saunders, 1954. [Listed EFT, I: 1 (1957), 26.] This book, which developed out of Ch X of a Radcliffe dissertation (1949), had the great advantage of drawing upon the unpub diary and leters In the Yale University Library and the Berg Collection of the NY Public Library. See the following reviews and comments, some of which contribute significantly to G's stature as a novelist: Baker, Carlos. "World Within a World," NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 28 Mar 1954 p. 4. Cherry, D. R. "New Books," DALHOUSIE REVIEW, XXXIV (Summer 1954), 201, 203. Collins, Clifford. "Other Recent Books," SPECTATOR, CXCIV (18 Mar 1955), 337. Edwards, Oliver. "George Gissing," LONDON TIMES, 30 June 1955, P. '3. Fauconnier, R. "Literary Biography," QUEEN'S QUARTERLY, LXI (Summer 1954), 278-80. Gordon, Robert C. "Book Reviews," COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, VII (Winter 1955), 67-68. Korg, Jacob. "GEORGE GISSING: GRAVE COMEDIAN," NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, IX (Sept 1954), 146-49. "A Portrait of Gissing," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 5 Nov 1954, p, 699. Ray, Gordon N. "Minor Victorian," SATURDAY REVIEW (NY), XXXVII (12 June 1954), 17. Ready, W. B. "New Books Appraised," LIBRARY JOURNAL, LXXIX (15 Mar 1954), 543. "Victorian Rebel," NATION (NY), CLXXVIIl (3 Apr 1954), 285. Edel, Leon and Gordon N. Ray (eds). HENRY JAMES 6- H. G. V.'ELLS: A RECORD OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP, THEIR DEBATE ON THE ART OF FICTION, AND THEIR QUARREL. Londj Rupert Hart-Davis, I958. Pp, 17, 71, 72, 74, 77, 95. After referring to G's visits to James's home, these letters contain James's famous inquiry after "poor Gissing": "He rather haunts me." Still later, James commended Wells for his help to poor G when the latter was dying. Edwards, Oliver. "Goerge Gissing," LONDON TIMES, 30 June 1955, P. 13. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(ήν). G wi11 be remembered chiefly for RYECROFT, the record of his escape from misery. What is common to all G books is the "quirked character" of a "self-destroying but essentially likeable writer of thwarted talents. . . ." Repeats what many others confirm: G disliked the poor. Evans, Myfanny. "Introduction," THE WHIRLPOOL. Lond: Watergate Classics, 1948. Not seen. 78 "The Face Behind the Mask," LOHDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 13 Apr 1962, p. 250. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING'S COMMONPLACE BOOK (qv), which reminds us that G's comments on the world are "always vivid, sometimes unjust, often wonderfully acute, whereas the paragraphs about the classical life and literature, which he felt to be his true Interest, are almost invariably commonplace." Fauconnier, R. "Literary Biography," QUEEN'S QUARTERLY, LXI (Summer 1954), 27880 . Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv) G lacked neither intelligence nor talent, but character. He needed the courage to press the pub of MRS. GRUNDY'S ENEMIES; failing this, he conformed to the popular tastes. Donnelly's notes and index are inadequate; her judgments require more evidence; her criticism is superficial; she fails to appreciate G and his times. We were better off with MAITLAND. Faverty, Frederic E. "When He Wrote He Rose Above His Surroundings," CHICAGO TRIBUNE MAGAZINE OF BOOKS, 24 Dec I96I, p. 4. Rev of Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ (qv), which "are particularly valuable as a record of countries visited. . . .books read, people met, Impressions formed." Those interested in G wi11 approve Young's scholarship and his introduction to the letters. Findlater, Jane Helen. "The Slum Movement In Fiction," NATIONAL REVIEW, XXXV (May I9OO), 447-54; rptd in STONES FROM A GLASS HOUSE. Lond: James Nisbet, 1904. Pp. 65-88, espec 77-79, 81. G "writes the tragedy of Want" in THE NETHER WORLD, but It is not written with brutality. G has no gospel of hope; the book maintains a level of "almost insane depression." [ESL] Francis, CJ. "Gissing and Schopenhauer," NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, XV (June I960), 53-63. While G's letters disclaim commitment to any philosophy, his characters mention Schopenhauer, particularly the characters of his early novels. And the ideas of Schopenhauer were in the air in G's day. This leads Francis to examine NEW GRUB STREET with considerable care to stress the note of pessimism that grows out of "a skeptical and depressed state of mind, a state which rejected morality and the right of the author to judge, in favor of determinism, which accepted the limitations of possible knowledge despite consequent deficiencies in spiritual satisfaction." ........ "Gissing's Characterization: Heredity and Environment," LITERARYHALF-YEARLY (Mysore, india), III (July 1952), 28-37. Examines G's novels to determine their allegiance to the theories of Zola and the naturalists, with particular reference to THE NETHER WORLD, THE EMANCIPATED, and NEW GRUB STREET. Gerber, Helmut E. "H. G. Wells and Two Correspondents: Bennett and Gissing," EFT, IV: 2 (i960), 68-69. Rev of Wilson's ARNOLD BENNETT 6- H. G. WELLS and Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING 6- H. G. WELLS, . . .(qv) commending Gettmann's scholarship. The letters of VJeMs, Bennett and G prove V.'ells the "most diverse writer, Bennett the greatest novel 1st, and Gissing the greatest artist." 79 Gettmann, Royal A. "Introduction," GEORGE GISSING 6- H. G. WELLS: A RECORD OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP AND CORRESPONDENCE. Ed with an Intro by Royal A. Gettmann. Urbana: University of Illinois P. I96I. Pp. 11-31. Despite many similarities between their experiences and attitudes, temperament prevented his attaining the financial success which Viel Is won. Shows that G was more charming than has generally been thought, that he often tested male characters by their response to a woman, that he had talent for journalism but was too proud to produce It, that he lacked confidence, he could only write of the things that interested him. G was a novelist whereas Wells was a writer, but despite his dedication to his art, G never wrote "a thoroughly good novel." His lack of success was partly due to "a failure to concentrate and dramatise." G lacked "the sympathetic imagination," he "could not wholly lose himself in his characters," his is a "kind of neutral, formal style," he had a divided attitude toward art, but he was closer to Wells than to James. G "was a mediator between the Victorians. . .and the innovators of the 1920s." [HEG] See the following reviews and comments: Adams, Ruth M. "Reviews," VICTORIAN STUDIES, V (Mar 1352), 271-72. Cherry, D. R. "New Books," QUEEN'S QUARTERLY, LXVIII (Winter 1962), 696. Gerber, Helmut E. "H. G. Wells and Two Correspondents: Bennett and Gissing," EFT, IV: 2 (i960), 68-69. Hill, A. G. "Reviews and Comment," CRITICAL QUARTERLY, III (Winter 1961), 373. Prltchett, V. S. "Casualties," NEW STATESMAN, LXI (25 May 1961), 841. Shrapnel, Norman. "Writing for Revenge," MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, 26 May 1961, p. 6. Shuttleworth, Martin. "Grubby Giant," SPECTATOR, CCVI (23 June 1961), 926, 928. Wolff, Joseph J. "Book Reviews," JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY, UII (Oct 1953), 816-17. Young, Arthur C. "Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS," NINETEENTHCENTURY FICTION, XVI (Mar 1962), 369-72. ........ A VICTORIAN PUBLISHER. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, I960. Pp. 196-97, 215-22, and index. Some material based on Gettmann's "Bentley & Gissing," NlNETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Xl (Mar 1957), 306-14 [listed EFT, I: 1 (1957), 26], Probably'gives last word on the tantalizing disappearance of G's MRS. GRUNDY'S ENEMIES. [Gettmann's book is reviewed by H. E. Gerber, "Reviews," EFT, IV: 3 (1961), 62-64.] "Gissing in Chicago," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 26 May 1932, p. 384. Rev of G's BROWNIE, rptd from the CHICAGO TRIBUNE together with six stories also attributed to him. In 1877, while a boy of 19, G suggested to the ed of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE that G write short stories for the newspaper. His first tale was "The Sins of the Fathers" (pub 10 May). Other stories by G were also accepted. "The problem is whether he also contributed to other local newspapers." Some evidence would say that he did, but G himself does not mention any other newspaper in his correspondence with his brother about his work In Chicago. Hastings, Starrett, Christopher Hagerup, and later Mabbott searched for these early stories—independently— after World War I. In 1923 Morley Roberts summarized the four tales from the TRIBUNE then discovered and, considering G's own opinion of them, hoped they would not be reprinted. They were, the following year, in a oO limited ed. Later discoveries were made, and Hastings, Starrett, and Mabbott collected the present vol of seven stories. its interest is "biographical rather than literary." The title tale is "undistinguished" and uncharacteristic of G. "The Warden's Daughter," "Twenty Pounds," and "Joseph Yates' Temptation"—espec the latter two—are more characteristic in theme. The tales show G "unformed," "the veriest amateur of his craft." "The Depth-Clock," "The Serpent-Charm," and "Dead and Alive"—supposedly a trilogy—are "poor Imitation Poe." "The most that its editors can say for it [the vol] is that Gissing might have written it—or might not." For further comment, see Mabbott, Thomas 01 live, "A Tale by Gissing identified." [MTT] "The Gissing Legend," LOMDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 30 Jan 1353, p. 74. Rev of Chisholm's "Foreword," THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT (qv). Announced ¡n the LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT for 5 Dec 1352, p. 8θ4, the new ed of RYECROFT with Chisholm's introduction became the subject of this article. Ryecroft is not a complete portrait of G, so that Chisholm is in error for taking the G legend too literally. We ought to have the opportunity to secure new issues of ISABEL CLARENDON and NEW GRUB STREET to compensate for this self-deception that G provides in RYECROFT. "Gissing's Heroines," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 28 Dec 1956, p. 730. Rev of Swinnerton's "Biographical Foreword," BY THE IONIAN SEA (qv). G's fascination with the classical world, espec the Roman Empire in its decline, was based not merely upon escapism from the sordidness of his life, but upon "an anxious spiritual concern with the possibility that the religious life was the only source whence the continuity of civilization could be maintained and its forces replenished." Dispensing with orthodox religion, G finds that the only "effective morality," the only salvation, can be found in "truth and love": by accepting the realities of existence and by being inspired to "contend against them." The latter quality G embodies in his women, although this does not make them monotonous; they vary from the ideal, "but all are measured by it." G's women come alive far oftener than do his men (only four "remain really vivid"). Fascinated by "the ambiguity of women," their amorality and their need to respect their men, G comes closest to solution of the "man-woman dilemma" in THE Ef1IANCIPATED. But Mallard is unlike the typical Gissing hero in his "sureness" of himself. Most of G's heroes are shadowy or insufficient, only his heroines "real"~and this stems from "a peculiar bias of the imagination" in G, attributable to his own two disastrous marriages. It was only "so long as his domestic misery endured that Gissing maintained the peculiar intensity of imagination that distinguishes his characteristic novels." There is a noticeable change in his attitude toward women in his later work, an "amused detachment." With a "passion for veracity" and clinging to his "intellectual integrity and artistic independence" G wrote of the world he knew, the "nether world." Comments briefly and perceptively on most of the novels. Concludes G will be "judged and remembered" not as a "reflective essayist," but as "a thinking novelist." [MTT] Goetsch, Paul. See Coustillas, Pierre, and Paul Goetsch. Gordan, John. "New in the Berg Collection: 1359-1961 (Part II)," BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIGRARY, LXVIII (Jan 1964), 6-12, espec 6-7; rptd NEW IN THE BERG COLLECTION: 1953-1961. NY: New York Public Library, 1964. Pp. 20-21. Describes 1st pub stories in the author's file copies, 81 1st pub novel (WORKERS IN THE DAWN) in crimson cloth; copies of 13 contracts with various publishers and some sales reports; letters from Gabriel Ie Fleury. [HEG] Gordon, Robert C. "Book Reviews," COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, VII (Winter 1955), 67-68. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv) Although for years respected as "one of the significant minor masters of English fiction," G has been too long neglected by "publishers, readers, and scholars alike." Utilizing previously "untapped manuscript sources," Donnelly has written the "first reliable full-length" critical biog of G, in which she includes excellent analyses of G's major works. Her criticism is based upon G's own standards in his more mature works—where "a cool, sometimes chilly, moral and psychological realism is brought to bear upon characters distinguished chiefly by their frustrations." In her "precise and businesslike analysis," Donnelly shows no undue prejudice in favor of G; at times, however, she fails to "deal clearly and thoroughly" with the problems which she has raised— as in the identification of G with his hero, which Donnelly calls "'paralyzing'" and Gordon says need not be so long as the motives spring from sources within the novel itself (Edwin Reardon in NEW GRUB STREET) rather than being imposed from without (the hero of ISABEL CLARENDON). Donnelly has "impressive evidence" of G's interest in many European writers such as Zola, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Ibsen. Comparisons between G's work and theirs are valuable in illustrating "the community of themes, ideas, and character types," but Donnelly does not, unfortunately, pursue this line to its fullest extent. She has, however, done much in giving us her "persuasive and levelheaded critical biography" of G, "as well as a study of his novels that far excels anything wirtten hitherto." [MTT] "Grub Street to Glory," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 12 Jan 1962, p. 27. Rev of Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ (qv). One merit of these letters is that they contain very little of the hysteria and self-pity that mar most of G's other writings. As in previous volumes of letters and BY THE IONIAN SEA, G shows greatly to advantage In describing the beauties of Greece and Rome. Mr. Young's research has been diligent; his notes are Informative and economical. If anything, he has been over-zealous. Haight, Gordon S. "A Self-Punishing Victorian," YALE REVIEW, LIII (Autumn 1963), 107-09. Rev Korg's GEORGE GISSING: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY (qv). Wonders if more information cannot be found about G's family, particularly about the social and religious conditions of his ancestors. Haight commends Korg's "careful and critical analysis of all Gissing's work." Haymaker, Richard E. FROM PAMPAS TO HEDGEROWS AND DOWNS: A STUDY OF W. H. HUDSON. NY: Bookman, 1954. P. 329. Besides several refs to the friendship of Hudson and G, this volume calls attention to some literary kinship between the writers. Referring to FAN, Haymaker writes: "The influence of Gissing is apparent in the opening chapters, in those picturing the Chances in East End, and, especially, in the conception of Fan herself, who twice is made to declare her kinship to Thyrza." Hill, A. G. "Reviews and Comment," CRITICAL QUARTERLY, III (Winter 1961), 373. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS. . . .(qv). While we are still confused about G's aims, "there is still something impressive about the actual achievement of this 'reluctant' novelist." Unfortunately, these letters to Wells throw little light on G's formative years. We need more 82 than this if we are to understand and appreciate where G's obession with his personal misery blurs the effects of his fiction. Hodgins, James R. "A Study of the Periodical Reception of the Novels of Thomas Hardy, George Gissing, and George Moore." DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS, XXI (July I960), I96-97. Unpub Ph D Thesis, Michigan State University, I960. Nineteenth-century reviewers identified pessimism and despair with naturalism but did not define their terms. House, Humphrey. THE DICKENS WORLD. Lond: Oxford U P, 1941; 2nd ed, 1942: rptd I95O; Oxford Paperbacks (1950), pp. 10, 145. Quotes a passage from Dickens to disprove G's claim that the earlier novelist could not describe trains with the same vision and gusto as he used in describing coaches. [Very slight.] Howe, Irving. "Introduction," NEW GRUB STREET. Boston: Houghton Mifflin [Riverside Ed], 1962. Pp. v-xxi.. Well suited for a student's first look at G, this intro summarizes many of the important judgments made in the past by Wells, James, and Virginia Woolf. It points out the late-Victorian and early modern techniques of fiction, distinguishes G's own position of the suffering novelist as depicted In NEW GRUB STREET, but pays only scant attention to G's other novels. Hudson, W. H. See Haymaker, Richard E. FROM PAMPAS TO HEDGEROWS AND DOWNS. . . . Hutton, Edward. "George Gissing," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 21 Feb 1948, p. IO7. Letter to ed insisting that G will be remembered for BY THE IONIAN SEA, and not for his novels; disagrees with "The Permanent Stranger," ibid, 14 Feb 1948, p, 92 (qv). In reply to Hutton, V. de S. Pinto, in letter to ed, "George Gissing," ibid, 6 Mar 1948, p. 135, asserts that G wi11 live rather for THE UNCLASSED, THE ODD WOMEN, IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, and NEW GRUB STREET. James, Henry. See Edel Leon, and Gordon N. Ray (eds). HENRY JAMES & H. G. WELLS. . . . Jameson, Storm. MORLEY ROBERTS: THE LAST EMINENT VICTORIAN. Lond: Unicorn P, I96I. No index; 10, 11, 14-17, 32, 49, 60, and passim. The author of more than 70 books will probably be best remembered for his friends, G and Hudson. Jameson knew Roberts well, and numerous incidents recorded here provide a new impression of the man and his era. G sketched Roberts "in several of his novels, notably in the character of Malkin of BORN IN EXILE and Vihelpdale of NEW GRUB STREET." See the following revs and comments: Coustillas, Pierre. "Reviews," EFT, V: 1 (1962), 63-64. "Writer and Friend," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 27 Oct 1961, p. 767. Jean-Aubrey, G. THE SEA DREAMER: JOSEPH CONRAD. NY: Doubleday, 1957. P. 235. See [Conrad, Joseph.] JOSEPH CONRAD: LETTERS TOWILLIAM BLACKWOOD. . . . Kirk, Russell. THE CONSERVATIVE MIND. Chicago: Regnery, 1953. Pp. 331-37. Commenting on G's reflections on London's nether world, Kirk emphasizes G's renunciation of socialism and his disgust with the masses. In RYECROFT, we have "the testament of a man who loved everything venerable in England." G is pictured as unalterably opposed to democracy, convinced that 83 aristocratic traditions must be reconciled "with the problems of the greycoated multitudes." Koike, Shigeru. "Gissing in Japan," COMPARATIVE LITERATURE (Tokyo: Yajlma Shobo, 1953); trans and revised, BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, LXVII (Nov 1963), 565-73. The "history of Gissing in Japan Is that of HENRY RYECROFT." G first mentioned by a Japanese In THE SHUMI (TASTE), in Jan I9O8, when Tokuboku (Kiichi Hi rata), "who had come across G in England, cited RYECROFT as his "favourite book." Hirata's lit reputation led to further articles and 1st Japanese trans of "rural" chs of RYECROFT, 1909. G's interest in nature and the seasons was in line with Classical tradition of Japanese lit and made G "comprehensible" and "congenial" for Hi rata and his 1'art pour 1'art group. Realism and social themes in G held little interest for Hi rata. First phase of G's wide-spread popularity in Japan was literary. The popularity of RYECROFT created a demand for a complete translation. 1st good, complete trans by Shigeru Fujino, 1924, with brief "significant" intro by philosopher Yoshishige Abe. Togswa's English reprint (1915), was used extensively as English text for high-school and university students. Second phase of G's popularity was "philosophical and social." His appeal now was to the "intelligentsia." The rising "storm of nationalism and militarism" led to the banning of RYECROFT In 1928. "It was a sign of the times that aspects of the book other than love of nature and solitude had attracted more attention." G's popularity is now on the wane in Japan. Koike's article lists and discusses various trans of G and articles about him in Japan. [Pearson]^ Korg, Jacob. GEORGE GISSING: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY. Seattle: University of Washington P, 1963. While a critical biog has to overcome the threat of becoming a patchwork, consisting of biog chapters alternating with critical ones, Korg allows his criticism to dominate the factual. We are confident in his biog, for while much is missing we suspect that most of the time it would not prove very important anyhow. One great merit of the book is Korg's knowledge of the fiction: he roves about, noting changes in G's style, his commitments to ideas, the effects of his personal problems on his novels, etc. It is a first-class study that will inevitably promote further serious attention to G's books. See the following reviews and comments: Coustillas, Pierre. "Bibliographie," LES LANGUES MODERNES, LVII (Nov-Dec 1963), 594-95. Haight, Gordon S. "A Self-Punishing Victorian," YALE REVIEW, LIII (Autumn 1963), 107-09. Lewis, Leslie L. "Reviews," ENGLISH LANGUAGE NOTES, I (Dec 1963), 152-54. "Victorian Outsider," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 5 July 1963, p. 494. Wolff, Joseph J. "The Life and the Works: Jacob Korg's George Gissing," ELT, Vl: 4 (I963), 246-48. Young, Arthur C. "Jacon Korg, GEORGE GISSING," NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, XVIII (Mar 1964), 399-402. ...... "GEORGE GISSING: GRAVE COMEDIAN," NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, IX (Sept 1954), 146-49. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . . (qv). Complains that the new book ignores the ideas while concentrating on the 84 techniques of G's novels; regrets that with so much material available, there is so little accomplished. Korg singles out several errors in plot summaries, names, etc. ........(ed). "George Gissing's Commonplace Book: A Manuscript from the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library," BULLETIN OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, LXV (Sept, Oct, Nov 1961), 417-34, 534-46, 588-614; rptd GEORGE GISSING'S COMMONPLACE BOOK. NY: New York Public Library, 1962. In his intro Korg calls attention to the many similarities between the notes and G's RYECROFT. He insists that there is an important difference between G's character and that of his counterpart: the styles merge, the ideas are frequently Identical, yet the personalities of G and Ryecroft provide interesting differences. The ideas are often shallow, and G's imagination is seldom extraordinary. See the following reviews and comments: Coustillas, Pierre. "Gissing's Commonplace Book," EFT, V: 4 (1962), 49-50. "The Face Behind the Mask," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 13 Apr 1962, P, 250. lalou, Rene. PANORAMA DE LA LITTERATURE ANGLAISE CONTEMPORAINE. Paris: Kra, 1927. Pp. 117-20. With G pessimism assumes the form of the realistic novel. Frank Swinnerton has restored a truer picture of him and divested him of the legend of poverty. His master was Dickens and he dreamt of becoming the English Balzac; he also deeply admired the Russians but he was devoid of the vitality of them all. His message Is obscure: he was the painstaking analyst of confused discontent. He has rightly been called "the historian of the middle classes" and BORN IN EXILE contains the most genuine of his heroes—Godwin Peak—who stands between revolt and concern for respectability. His DEMOS is anti-democratic. His novels are unrelieved by poetry or humour. Beside the novelist we find the traveller (BY THE IONIAN SEA) and the essayist (RYECROFT) who called forth "the infinite pathos of human resignation." [Coustillas] Lewis, Leslie L. "Reviews," ENGLISH LANGUAGE NOTES, I (pec 1963), 152-54. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). Notes that biog information on G became available slowly, that biog interpretations of the novels resulted in a variety of fragmented views of G. Korg's work is not "fractional, phasal, nor impressionistic, but a continuous record of a life." Praises Korg's placing of G Into the "ages" his career spanned but notes that the man G "becomes somewhat submerged under the weight of intellectual and 1iterary criticism. . . ." [HEG] M., 0. "THE TOWN TRAVELLER," PUNCH, CCXXX (7 Mar 1956), 302. Announcing the appearance of the Methuen reprint of this novel, this brief review calls THE TOWN TRAVELLER an unusual G story because it is cheerful and entertaining. The book has "the smell of gas-lamps, fog and cheap eatinghouses " that now seems to us part of the charm of late-Victorian days. Mabbott, Thomas OMive. "A Tale by Gissing Identified," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 7 July 1932, p. 499. Letter to ed, stating that despite G's letter to his brother, he did not write "a three-column" newspaper story each week—nor would G in making this statement have been confusing his contribution to APPLETON'S JOURNAL, a magazine, with his newspaper work. He did, however, "almost surely" make "other newspaper contributions in Chicago." Identifies "An English Coast-Picture" (APPLETON'S, ns, 111 85 [July I877], 73-78) by a "G. R. Gresham" as G's work, referred to in his LETTERS (I927), p. 58. Comments on previous article, "Gissing in Chicago" (qv). [MTT] "Menander's Mirror: Henry Ryecroft's Question," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 16 Jan 1943, p. 27. If G rarely tried to provide answers to social dilemmas— except in the largest sense as he opposed poverty—he did recognize the responsibility shared by all serious and educated men to press for universal good. There are rather lengthy examinations of the novels. The article is not occasioned by a new G book. Moore, George. See Brown, Malcolm. GEORGE MOORE: A RECONSIDERATION. Murry, J. Middleton. "George Gissing," KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND OTHER LITERARY STUDES. Lond: Constable, 1959. Pp. 3-68. Drawing heavily from G's novels and letters and from Roberts' MAITLAND, Murry employs lengthy excerpts in composing this biography and survey of the books. The appreciative essay praises G handsomely, but rarely makes a new approach to his work and never provides any new materials. He is satisfied that G's characters are "convincingly human"; G's success derives "from the fact that his subjects were not congenial to him." Murry singles out for particular priase G's critical essays on Dickens, his fictional women, and his understanding of the lower and middle classes. NeMl, S. Diana. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL. NY: Macmillan, 1952. Pp. I97-2O3. One of the more perceptive studies of the English novel, this book places G among the important figures at the close of the 19th century, a "bridge between the old and the new schools of novelists." She concludes that G "deserves to be remembered as the first novelist to penetrate into the mental hell reserved for the intellectual misfit of modern society." Niebling, Richard F. "The Early Career of George Gissing," Unpub Ph D Dissertation, Yale, I947. With the use of the Yale, NY Public and other libraries, Niebling studies G's writings of the 1880's, claiming that he produced his best books during that decade; he stresses NEW GRUB STREET as a commentary on G's 1 i terary 1 i fe. O'London, John [Frank Swinnerton]. "Letters to Gog and Magog," JOHN 0' LONDON'S WEEKLY, LXX (23 Jan 1953), 71. Rev of Chisholm's "Foreword," THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT (qv). Swinnerton heads his weekly column "Author at Grass," observing the 50th anniversary ed of RYECROFT. He claims that Chisholm's intro contains much about G that he never knew before. Swinnerton wonders if RYECROFT was the result of an impulse in G from reading C. F. Keary's THE WANDERER (1901). G's books are all a release to tranquility— even if they never permitted G to forget his humiliation and his shame. Orwell, George. [Eric Blair] "George Gissing," LONDON MAGAZINE, VII (June I960), 36-43. Originally commissioned for periodical never printed, this article is here pub for 1st time. Orwell notes G's attack on respectability, lack of interest in social justice, lack of admiration for working class as a group, and G's isolated sensitivity. [HEG] ........ "Not Enough Money," TRIBUNE (Lond) 2 Apr 1953, p. 12. Not seen. 86 Osborne, E. B. "A Dismal Dickens," MORNING POST (Lond), 6 Oct 1922 [not seen]; rptd LIVING AGE, CCCXV (11 Nov 1922), 361-63. Discusses G's life in relation to his novels. "Gloom from within" responsible for his dreary description of London streets. Dickens would have looked at them with a different eye. [Pearson] "The Permanent Stranger," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 14 Feb 1948, p. 92. Characterizes G as the representative of the new novel in England (with kinship to D. H. Lawrence), although he paid his debt to certain customs of the Victorian novel (eccentric wills, secret marriages, missing mothers, etc). If G is less successful in representing the upper classes, he does portray "idealists at odds with life, thwarted by poverty or by the consciousness of ambitions and talents beyond their means and class." The TLS picks THE ODD WOMEN and IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE as probably G's finest books. See Plomer, William. "IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE," PENGUIN NEW WRITING, No 29. Pinto, V. de S. "George Gissing," -LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 6 Mar 1948, p. 135. See Hutton, Edward. "George Gissing." Plomer, William. "IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE," PENGUIN NEW WRITING, No 29. Ed by John Lehmann. Lond: Penguin Books, 1947. Pp. 116-22. Drawn in part from introductions to various reprints, for which see ELT, III: 1 (I960), 30, this essay, slightly reworked also became "Introduction," IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE (Lond: Watergate Classics, 1947). Argues that G has many addicts among those who ignore his prejudices and allow the novelist a fair reading. Yet there is no chance of a G revival because he writes about unglamorous lower classes, because his style has no gusto and little entertainment value, and because ne needs a sympathetic critic. Yet G's novels sustain themselves by recording "the materialism and social injustice of his lateVictorian day." Plomer impressed with the less amiable qualities of G's women and with his representation of the tormented hero. See the following reviews and comments on Plomer's introductions and the present composite article: "The Permanent Stranger," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 14 Feb 1948, p. 92. Pritchett, V. S. "Books in General," NEW STATESMAN AND NATION, XXXIV (8 Nov 1947), 372. "A Portrait of Gissing," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 5 Nov 1954, p. 699. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). Too often, when faced with doubt in recording G's biography, Donnelly dodges her question. When criticism is demanded, she does not seem to grasp the issue, nor is she familiar with London or the 19th century; she fails to make use of George Moore in her comparisons; she picks the wrong novels for careful study, choosing EVE'S RANSOM, for example, instead of BORN IN EXILE, THYRZA, or THE ODD WOMEN. Preble, Harry E. "Gissing's Articles for VYESTNIK EVROPY," VICTORIAN NEWSLETTER, No 23 (Spring 1963), 12-15. [Draws on Preble's Unpub University of Illinois Thesis, "Gissing's contributions to VYESTNIK EVROPY" (I960).] G drew heavily from London newspapers and periodicals for the eight articles he prepared from this Russian magazine between 1881-82. He repeatedly showed 87 his liberalism in reporting the Irish problem, parliamentary debates, and threats of war. Preble notes the importance of these articles in underscoring G's social and political convictions, yet wonders why G failed to be critical of London life. The article is particularly useful for readers of WORKERS IN THE DAWN and THE UNCLASSED. . ....... "Gissing's Contributions to VYESTNIK EVROPY," DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS, XXI (I960), 1571. Unpub University of Illinois Ph D Thesis. See Preble, Harry E. "Gissing's Articles for VYESTNlK EVROPY," VICTORIAN NEWSLETTER, No 23 (Spring 1963), 12-15. Pritchett, V. S. "Artists on Oath," NEW STATESMAN, LXIII (2 Feb 1962), 164-65. Rev of Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ (qv). These letters are interesting "for the precise check they give to what is meant by Gissing's failure to earn his living as a novelist with a respectful but small public." They are the letters of a "tired man" and are almost totally "lacking in intimacy." Pritchett finds G a little patronizing towards Bertz. "[Gissing] had the conceit of his misfortunes." ...... "Books in General," NEW STATESMAN AND NATION, XXXIV (8 Nov 1947), 372. Rev of William Plomer's eds of INTHEYEAR OF JUBILEE and LIFE'S MORNING. [See Plomer, William. "1N THE YEAR OF JUBILEE," PENGUIN NEW WRITING, No 29.] Distinguishes the material hopes of Shaw and Wells, contrasting G's own despair as he recalls the struggles of these writers in the depressions and the expanding economies of the turn of the century. We still read G because "he speaks seriously about matters which no other novelist has taken so seriously." Or, put in the reverse form, Pritchett claims that G's "failure is the source of his persistent fame; he is one of those novelists who are neither discarded nor made Immortal, but whose reputation drags its heavy-footed way In a kind of perpetual purgatory." The shadow of Ryecroft remains upon G. In concluding, Pritchett sees G as foreshadowing the modern novelist of our day, the "uprooted intellectual. . .cut off by education from his own class and by economic and social conditions from any other place in society." ...... "Casualties," NEW STATESMAN, LXI (26 May 1961), 841. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS. . . . (qv). Pritchett finds the collection interesting for Gabrielle's compassionate letters, for Wells' "bumptious style of the new realism": his letters are "gay, eager and confident," while G's are "warm but tired and essentially evasive." Commenting on G's advice to Viel Is about travel in Rome, Pritchett generalizes that "it is typical of Gissing to impose his own character on others in this way; that is one of the defects of the novels." Passive and isolated as G himself, his characters share his feeling for failure In life. ...... "Foreword," THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT. NY: New American Library (Signet), 1961. Pp. vii-xvi. Repeating several passages from his other writing about G, Pritchett stresses G's "positive genius for high-minded self-destruction." He recalls G's life to point up the paradox of G's poverty and his feelings towards the destitute: he pitied the slum-dweller and the poorly educated, "but as a scholar and Intellectual . . .he hated and despised them for their grossness." Today, returning to G, we recognize the alarm he sounded about the future of society; he was appalled by the decline in our own culture. For further comment see Starrett, 88 Vincent. "Books Alive," CHICAGO TRIBUNE MAGAZINE OF BOOKS, 25 Mar 1962, p. 7. Õ Quinn, John]. LIBRARY OF JOHN QUINN: PART TWO [D-H]. NY: Anderson Galleries [Sale I783], I923. Pp. 336-39. One-paragraph biographical sketch; i terns 3346-3384. [ESL] Ray, Gordon N. "Minor Victorian," SATURDAY REVIEW (NY), XXXVII (12 June 1954), 17. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). V'hile Mrs. Donnelly's book fills a "considerable gap in English literary annals," we still need a full scale biography using materials from unpublished letters. Furthermore, her criticisms are strained to substantiate questionable theories about G's novels. She errs in not stressing THYRZA, NEW GRUB STREET, THE NETHER WORLD, and BORN IN EXILE. Ready, W. B. "New Books Appraised," LIBRARY JOURNAL, LXXIX (15 Mar 1954), 543. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . . (qv), Necessary acquisition for college libraries, as a "revealing and very readable biography." Shrapnel, Norman. "Writing for Revenge," MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, 26 May I96I, p. 6. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G0 WELLS. . . .(qv). G needed his sufferings for his novels, yet he was not devoted to his miseries enough to transfer them into respectable anguish. These letters show that Wells thought better of G than his EXPERIMENT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY suggests. G's fate was to be unable to live down misfortune. Shuttleworth, Martin. "Grubby Giant," SPECTATOR, CCVl (23 June 1961), 926, 928. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS. . . .(qv). We must admire Wells for recognizing G's greatness; his greatness consists in creating the city of London, in making it live for his fictional characters and for us. G tried to catch "that clash of space and time which was nineteenth-century England and hold it in his mirror." This proved to be his "unique triumph." Starkie, Enid. FROM GUATIER TO ELlOT. Lond: Hutchinson, i960. Pp. 79-80. Traces French influence in English literature. Discovers the naturalistic "slice of life" in NETHER WORLD, BORN IN EXILE, and espec in ODD WOMEN. G is also mentioned in rev of Starkie: "A Charm Against Francophobia," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 8 Apr i960, p. 224, in which reviewer, with apparent ironic intention, interprets Starkie as suggesting that "the vital and original English fiction of the late nineteenth century comprised the works of George Moore and Henry James, together with George Gissing, Hubert Crackanthorpe, Mr. Somerset Maugham and Arnold Bennett." Starrett, Vincent. "Books Alive," CHICAGO TRI BUiJE MAGAZINE OF BOOKS, 10 Nov I957, p. 13. On the 100th anniversary of G's birth, Chicago should recall the novelist's visit to this city and the story of his adventures narrated in RYECROFT and NEW GRUB STREET. ...... "Books Alive," CHICAGO TRIBUNE MAGAZINE OF BOOKS, 25 Mar 1962, p. 7. Rev of Pritchett, V. S. "Foreword," THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF HENRY RYECROFT (qv). Himself a bibliophile, Starrett feels warmly about RYECROFT and is sympathetic to the sense of the bookish in NEW GRUB STREET. 89 Stevenson, Lionel. THE ENGLISH NOVEL: A PANAORAMA. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, I960. Pp. 399-410; 414-24. Along with Hardy, G "has defied the taboos of refinement by telling distasteful truths about cruelty and poverty, both rural and urban"; however, G was not convincing in the "treatment of sex, in spite of his pose of frankness. Partly this may have been due to his fear of antagonizing the critics and libraries, but also it must be attributed to the ineptness of his own relations with women." Swinnerton, Frank. See O'London, John. Swinnerton, Frank. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. NY: Doubleday Doran, 1936. Pp. 31, 118, I36; see index. Contains several passing references to G, to Swinnerton's critical study of 1912; (see EFT, III: 2 [i960]). He denies any literary debt to G. ...... BACKGROUND WITH CHORUS. Lond: Hutchinson, 1956. Pp. 130-35; see index. Another denial of G's influence on his own fiction; one passage, dealing with his search for materials for his critical study of G (EFT, IM: 2 [i960]) is especially interesting for Swinnerton's impressions of Wells and Roberts. ...... "Biographical Foreword," BY THE IONIAN SEA. Lond: Richards, 1956. (Listed in EFT, 111: I[1960], 30). This publi cation occasioned a full page article, "Gissing's Heroines;" LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 28 Dec I956, p. 78O (qv). Convinced that religion had decayed, G conducted a search for truth. The author of the LTLS article believes that G concluded that salvation was reserved for only a few: they would find it in "truth and love: truth in facing the facts of existence; love—primarily between man and woman—in inspiring individuals to contend against them." The ideal love resides in G's heroines. G conceived these creatures when life was hardest for him. It is startlingly plain that it was "only so long as his domestic misery endured that Gissing maintained the peculiar intensity of imagination that distinguishes his characteristic novels." With NEW GRUB STREET and BORN IN EXILE he had reached his pinnacle, so that after EVE'S RANSOM there comes a detachment that marks a new approach to character. While BY THE IONIAN SEA deserves to be reprinted and made available, G's reputation rests upon a dozen of his best novels, and these demand reprinting too. ........ THE BOOKMAN'S LONDON. NY: Doubleday, 1952, Pp. 134-35. Agrees with James1 opinion, that "fine and powerful though Gissing could be at his best, he was a misfit. Temperamentally a scholar. . .he was incurably middle-class. . .in outlook." "An Unequal Friendship," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 7 July I96I, p. 4l6. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS. . . .(qv). Their lengthy correspondence reveals the differences in fictional ideals in the two writers. More often than not, Wells misunderstood G, although at the same time he provided encouragement and confidence. Wells failed to appreciate the depths of G's capacity for suffering frustration. The review also surveys G's life and concludes that with the publication of even more materials it would soon be appropriate to expect a new biography. 90 "Victorian Outsider," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 5 July 1963, p. 494. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). Believes that G "would have been surprised and displeased to learn that the primary interest in his work, sixty years after his death, rests in his attempt to make artistic sense out of his personal confusions." Korg's book is "so good that one wishes he would undertake the definitive biography," so blurred is the image we have from MAITLAND. This study has much of value gained from the Yale, Berg, and Pforzheimer collections. Yet we must learn more: eg, were G's early, disastrous marriages the cause of his best novels; did he come to the "increased smoothness and certainty of style" in RYECROFT and BY THE IONIAN SEA with his happiness in Gabriel Ie Fleury's companionship? "Victorian Rebel," NATION (NY), CLXXVIM (3 Apr 1954), 285. Rev of Donnelly's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). Whatever strength this study has at the start is not sustained when Donnelly approaches her concluding chapters. Wagenknecht, Edward. "George Gissing, a Scholar in Grub Street," CALVACADE OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL. NY: Holt, 1943. Pp. 406-11. A conventional gathering of traditional reactions to G's work, combined with a brief biography and list of his books. G is pictured as knowing what an author ought to do, without being able himself to comply with these artistic creeds. Ward, A. C. "Introduction," ΤΟΕ Ο-BUNGAY. ByH. G. Wells. Lond: Longmans, I96I. "The Heritage of Literature Series." P. xxv. "The description of Uncle Ponderevo's death. . .is based in part upon Wells' own experience when he went across to France in 1903 to be with his friend the novelist George Gissing, who would otherwise have died attended by such strangers as hovered round Uncle Ponderevo." [ESL] Wells, H. G. See Edel, and Gordon N. Ray (eds). HENRY JAMES & H. G. WELLS. . . . Williams, David. "Foreign Correspondent," PUNCH, CCXLII (10 Jan 1962), 117. Rev of Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO BDUARD BERTZ (qv). G deserved a better correspondent than Bertz; his best letters originate in Greece and Rome. The book is "scrupulously annotated." Wilson, Harris (ed). ARNOLD BENNETT & H. G. WELLS: A RECORD OF A PERSONAL AND LITERARY FRIENDSHIP. Urbana: University of Illinois P, I960. Pp. 56, 62, 85. In their correspondence, Wells wrote Bennett that G and Moore belonged to another school of novelists, an impersonal school. V.'ells resented the fact that Bennett devoted sections of FAME AND FORTUNE to G and Moore, but none to Wells. Referring to DEMOS, Bennett said that he never expected G to gain public acclaim. For review see Gerber, Helmut E. "H. G. Wells and Two Correspondents: Bennett and Gissing." Wing, Donald G. "The Adams-Gissing Collection," YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GAZETTE, XVIII (Jan 1944), 49. Announcement of further gifts to the George Matthew Adams Collection, consisting of fourteen of G's school and university certificates. One document certifies that G merited a "good conduct" award et Owens College for the period 1872-1875; there is no mention of his disgrace. 91 Wolff, Joseph J. "Book Reviews," JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY, LXII (Oct I963), 816-17. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS. . . .(qv). The letters clarify the differences in the two novelists: Wells dedicated to the practical, G to the artistic. Probably the greatest merit in this volume lies in Gettmann's sensitive appraisal of G's literary ach i evement. ...... "The Life and the Works: Jacob Korg's George Gissing," ELT, Vl: 4 (1963), 246-48. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). Here is a wel1-organized examination of G's life and letters, developed from abundant investigation and considerable insight. It is basic to any serious study of G's achievement, particularly because it places him historically and draws upon his fellow novelists. ........ "Reviews," EFT, V: 2 (1962), 36-38. Rev of Young's THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ (qv). More than in his other letters, G here makes literary judgments. Young's intro and notes are excellent; they escape the factual level to provide insights and relationships uncommon in such editions. "Writer and Friend," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 27 Oct 1961, p. 767. Rev of Jameson's MORLEY ROBERTS. . . .(qv). Roberts will be rememberd "as the friend of men more famous than himself," men such as G and W. H. Hudson. But his "fictionalized life of Gissing," THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY MAITLAND," is one of the "best literary biographies in the language. ..." G has sketched the "more juvenile manifestations" of Roberts' temperament in Malkin of BORN IN EXILE and Whelpdale of NEW GRUB STREET. Brief summary of the facts of Roberts' life and the intensity of his emotional existence as related by Jameson. [MTT] Young, Arthur C. "The Death of Gissing: A Fourth Report," ESSAYS IN LITERARY HISTORY. Ed by Rudolph Kirk and C. F. Main. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U P, I960. Pp. 217-28. Discussion of contradictory reports by Wells, Cooper and Roberts of circumstances of G's death. Quotes letters from Gabrielle Fleury to Bertz (Jan-Nov 1904), in which she mentions G's visions of "l'autre monde, l'enfer et les diables," during his last night, expresses virulent anger at Wells' "Impression" of G in MONTHLY REVIEW, XVI (Aug 1904) [See EFT, III: 2 (I960), 3I], and recounts the incident of Wells forcing champagne, coffee, tea and milk, "coup sur coup," on G during her brief absence from the sickroom, with the doctor's subsequent reaction— "M l'a tué!" This "fourth report" by Gabrielle Fleury, "except for the possibly malicious accusation about Wells," "is as close to the truth as any of the other three." [Pearson] ...... "Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS," NINETEENTH-CENTURY FlCTI ON, XVl (Mar 1962), 369-72. Rev of Gettmann's GEORGE GISSING AND H. G. WELLS. . . . (qv). Summarizes some of the major points of the G-WeMs correspondence. Espec notes that G's relationship with V.'ells was not always unmarred, that on the whole Wells was warmly sympathetic during G's lifetime, that G's relationship with Gabrielle was also not entirely unmarred. Questions Gettmann's use of not always accurate printed sources in his footnotes where original material might have been used, omitted identifications of a number of people referred to in the text of the letters. [HEG] 92 ..... "Jacob Korg, GEORGE GISSING," NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, XVIII (Mar 1964), 399-402. Rev of Korg's GEORGE GISSING. . . .(qv). Rather than a "critical biography," as the subtitle states, Korg's book is "a study of Gissing's thought as illustrated in his novels, and a comparison of his thinking with that of other Victorians such as Ruskin, Hardy, Eliot, H. G. Wells, and Sir Walter Besant." The book makes meticulous use of recent scholarship but gives few new insights and little of the "sense of life, of personality: of humanity in either Gissing or the people concerned with his existence." Because of the need to give much space to redactions of plots, little is given to such details as Bertz's aid in giving information to G for use in articles. Korg does well point out "the shifts and contradictions in Gissing's thought" and places G's "ideas into a general nineteenth-century framework." Underlines G's vacillation "on questions of reform, politics and aesthetics" and his firmness in adhering to agnosticism and adamant refusal to supply "pabulum for the popular taste." [HEG] ...... (ed) THE LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING TO EDUARD BERTZ, 1887-1903. New Brunswick: Rutgers U P, 1961. Young provides us with careful and accurate information about G's life, his family and friends. Then he fully annotates these letters, which date from 1888 to G's death. They reveal a confident G, far more assured than the G of the Wells correspondence; and they contain many statements of G's literary ideals and judgments. See the following reviews and comments: Adams, Ruth M. "Reviews," VICTORIAN STUDIES, V (Mar 1962), 271-72. Bergonzi, Bernard. "Shabby Genteel," SPECTATOR, CCVIII (26 Jan 1962), 11516 . Faverty, Frederic E. "When He Wrote He Rose Above His Surroundings," CHICAGO TRIBUNE MAGAZINE OF BOOKS, 24 Dec 1961, p. 4. "Grub Street to Glory," LONDON TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, 12 Jan 1962, p. 27. Pritchett, V. S. "Artists on Oath," NEW STATESMAN, CXIII (2 Feb 1962), 16465 . Williams, David. "Foreign Correspondent," PUNCH, CCXLII (10 Jan 1962), 117. Wolff, Joseph J. "Reviews," EFT, V: 2 (1962), 36-38. ........ "A Note on George Gissing," JOURNAL OF THE RUTGERS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, XXII (Dec 1958), 23-24. Reviews circumstances of G's decision to leave England permanently on 6 May 1899 in order to "marry" Gabrielle Fleury. Prints postcard (7 May 1899) to F. G. Kitton, collaborator on new ed of Dickens' works to show "the equilibrium of Gissing's mind" and Kitton's respect for G. [HEG] Zabel, Morton Dauwen. "Dickens: The Reputation Revisited," NATION, CLXIX (7 Sept 1949), 279-8I. Lists G among Dickens' three greatest critics: "Taine sensed the fact" of the actual Dickens; "Gissing got hold of it though with some uncertainty, Wilson has traced its lines through the novels." ...