The Collected Letters of George Gissing Volume Four 4: 1889-1891

Gissing, George.; Matthiesen, Paul R.; Young, Arthur C.;Coustillas, Pierre

ISBN 10: 0821410547 / ISBN 13: 9780821410547

Published by Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio, 1993

About this Item

Lovely clean copy, in chipped d/w, worn at top of spine.

Seller Inventory # 037744

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Collected Letters of George Gissing Volume Four 4: 1889-1891
• Publisher: Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0821410547
• ISBN 13: 9780821410547
• Binding: Quarter Cloth, Cream Boards
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Very Good +
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • George Gissing

About this title

Synopsis

Gissing’s career, which spanned the period of about 1877 to his death in 1903, was characterized by prodigious output (almost a novel a year in the early days), modest recognition, and modest income. He wrote of poverty, socialism, class differences, social reform, and later on, about the problems of women and industrialization. His best known works are New Grub Street (1891) and Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903), rich sources of social commentary that reflect a literary transition from the Victorian to the modern period.

For many years, the only Gissing letters available to the public were a handful written to his family published in 1927. Now the editors have culled widely scattered sources—private and public collections, journals, newspapers, memoirs, biographies, and sales catalogs—to gather and organize Gissing’s correspondence, including letters to him, and to provide an editorial context.

Volume four begins when Gissing is in Florence, elated to be making a cultural pilgrimage that also took him to Greece the following winter, then briefly back to Italy. The Nether Worldis published in the spring of 1889, and The Emancipated the following spring. But by 1891, his mood is altogether different. His relationships with his family continue to be conflicted and he is increasingly disenchanted with his publishers and his half-hearted marriage to Edith Underwood.

About the Author

Paul F. Mattheisen is associate professor of English, SUNY, Binghamton.

Arthur C. Young is professor emeritus of English at Russell Sage College.

Pierre Coustillas is professor of English, University of Lille, France.