ABSTRACT
Candidly, we do not like this unhallowed interference with our old favourites. IfMr Gissing, in whom we recognise an intelligent student of the novelist, wishes to write a life of Dickens, well and good, let him do so-we are certain we shall find much that is thoughtful and interesting in his work. But that he should graft himself: so to speak, on Forster, calmly taking all that was best in the work, and associating his own name with it, raises our wrath. On the front of the book now appear the words, 'The Life ofDickens. Forster and Gissing.' After this we may expect to see Boswell violently laid hold of and utilised to expound the views of some other writer. Our protest made, however, we are willing to admit that Mr Gissing has carried out his work of abridgment and revision with excellentjudgment. This book is interesting, but it is no longer unadulterated Forster-that is our cause of complaint.
