ME GEORGE GISSING AT HOME.

Otago Witness, Issue 2308, 26 May 1898, Page 49

ME GEORGE GISSING AT HOME.

A writer in the American Book Bayer furnishes some very interesting, if not altogether vmfamiiiar, facts respeofcing the careerof Mr George Gissing, a novelist who is now rapidly " coining to his own,"

Gissing's life story (says the Book Buyer) ,ie as dreary and merciless as some d£ the incidents in his stories. lie is a Yorkshireman, having been born in W&kefield 39 years ago. His father was a man of learning and sound business sense, and held, many important county offices. He died in 1870, leaving young Gissing, bat 13 years old, alone in the world. He received the ordinary education of the middle-Qiaos English boy,' stopping short of the university. He early evinced an Stltude for langueges, mastering Greek, tin, SjKurisb, German, &nd Italian * the

last three he speaks an<^ writes fluently. Ha spent a year among the peasants off' Italy? and he smiles at the suggestion of conti«' nental travelling being expansive* He commenced life as a teacher in a private school ; but, being endowed with A PLETHORA OF NERVES AND A PAUCITY 01?

PATIENCE, he made but little snecess. He kept at ifc, however, for two years, when, in desperation, he gave up the struggle and ''packed hjia grip " for London, with a feWguiaeas in Jbfa pooket. It was the old instance of the fjfylr ing-pan and the fire over agfain» He aira.sd at some more hopeful career than teaching, and resolved to take up literature. Hia life in Londonwas s long,'heart-grind-ing fight against poverty. For more th'ah two years he did not know from what quarter the n?xt meal was coming. He conld not support himself by literature alone, and w,as oompelled at times to act as a private tnfar. He destroyed quantities of MS. In the strenuous struggle for style. Disappoint' ments were many ; but he felt that he had the proper materiel in him, could he bat give expression to' ifc. Living in the cheapest quarter of London, his outlook on life was one of gloom. Hie own life and that about: him furnished endless themes for stories.

After, enumerating Mr Gissing's- novels, and indicating their inspiration, the writer continues : London, furnishes Mr Gissirsg with material, but the novelist himself lives at Epsom, 12 miles from T&KJSIET&OPOLTS WHOSE HEART HB HAS PHOEED

SO RELENTLESSLY. He lives in a small house, and his workroom ia the fciniestroom imaginable, plainly" furnifhed, with & fetv books. " Ife \Amuses me,.* be has said, " whenever I sea illustrated in a magazine the studios of well-known authors — many of them my friends. Unto that I shall nevur attain. I' shall die aa I have lived— a Bohemian."

His life is one cf seclusion. He has.no part in ordinary social affairs. He does not desire it. In precarious health, he is a hard worker, and turns out a tremendous amount of " copy" each year. Once a week he goes to London, where be rambles about the lower districts in 'search of characters and, incident?. His goie amusement is an ooca-sional-visit to the British Museum. Ab present he is hard ?.t woik on. a new novel of London life — of life aicongthe middle olasses ; the life he knows so well, which he portrays so graphically, but without the faintest touch of the poetic imagination, without which no book can live. He is also working on some sketches for the magazines, and has tried his hand at biography. > Mr Gissing ought to .succeed in tftia form of literarj <york; for he has positive genius for marshalling facts and

SEIZING THE VITAL AKD ESSENTIAL. Bat he looks upon snob, work as mere recreation. Hi* heart is in his novels, and he strives seriously and with a purpose. He believes implicitly that bis bitter, unpalatable message will baar sweet frait in the regeneration of the lower classes of gooiety. - He . does not preach reform, he - suggests no remedy; but he paints in raw pigments a picture of pain atod patience, and a selfish, sordid, coward world' that complains > and cries and shirks its burdens. To bis credit be >it sa?d that he never complained, of his own t&fck, self-impo&ftd, nor questioned i%'6 reward, more concerned with his work that it: be honest than with another man's estimate Of Vdv " I have only one rule to work by,'* he said one day, =ift©r a conversation on the methods of literary - production £ "'ifc_ is simply to write of what I know best. This principle is vital.

THE HM OP I.ITEBATUKE.. If my stories are pesßimiatie, it- is only because my life is each. My envlronnianfcs were sordid, the people wera sordid, and my s work i 3 but a reflection of It ali. 3adn«?ss 2 My books are full of, it. The world is fall of it. Show me the masterpieces of art, literature, or music, and I shall show you croations palpitating with sadness. , Ah, the toil q£ the • weib and kind,' how it fashions men's live3 l Mine has been but the common lot. No usa saying much about it. - I find my little'happiness in the fields In snminsr, and am cobtent when I think o£ the toiling millions, 12 miles away, who never see a blue sky or feel the earth yield bsneath their feet."