ABSTRACT
This is, we believe, Mr Gissing's first essay in a new art. He has been responsible, first and last, for over a dozen novels of the orthodox length; here he makes his appearance as a writer ofshort stories. Truth to say, some of the contents of this volume are not stories at all, they are the raw material of fiction, sketches, and studies, mere scraps and suggestions, without the unity and finish that in its way the conte, no less than the roman, demands. These should have been omitted; the debris of the workshop, they swell the bulk of the volume and blur the effect of the score of really fine contes with which they are associated. As a conteur Mr Gissing has developed certain qualities which have not been so noticeable in his more elaborate work, and will probably react upon that for good. He has learnt to trim away the unessential, to be immediate, vivid, to aim at the centre. He begins to show a feeling for style which hitherto has rather lain dormant. The material of his tragedies is sordid enough, but in the impersonal reticence ofthe telling they find an expression which is very far removed from the sordid. Such keenly observed, straightly put narrative as Mr Gissing gives us in 'The Day of Silence' is art ofa very fine order....
