Gissing, G: Nether World

en Limba Engleză Paperback – 29 iul 2018

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 despite being able to live comfortably. His fortune is kept a secret even from his close friends and relatives. George Robert Gissing was an English novelist, a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He failed to get his first novel accepted by a publisher, and so published it privately, funding it with money from an inheritance. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880 and later produced over twenty novels during his literary career becoming one of the most popular writers.

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Notă biografică

Gissing was born on November 22, 1857, in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the eldest of five children to Thomas Waller Gissing, a chemist, and Margaret. His siblings included William, who died at the age of twenty, Algernon, who later became a writer, Margaret, and Ellen. The Gissing Trust maintains his childhood house in Thompson's Yard, Wakefield. Gissing attended Back Lane School in Wakefield, where he excelled academically. His real interest in reading began when he was ten years old, when he read Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop, and it expanded over time, thanks to his father's encouragement and the family library. Juvenilia written at this time was published in 1995 as The Poetry of George Gissing. After returning to England, Gissing and Nell lived in London, where he wrote novels and worked as a private instructor. When his debut novel, Workers in the Dawn, was rejected by a publisher, he self-published it using funds from an inheritance. Gissing married Nell on October 27, 1879. Their marriage was marred by poverty, and they were frequently separated while Nell was in the hospital due to ill health. Morley Roberts, a fellow novelist and Owens College alumni, published The Private Life of Henry Maitland, a novel inspired by Gissing's life, in 1912. He was acquaintances with Eduard Bertz, a German socialist whom he met in 1879.