ABSTRACT

Gissing wrote to his sister Ellen after reading the following account ofhis novel: 'In the Athenaeum you will see a notice; they put me at the head of novels of the week. Thank heaven, I shall not be obliged to see other reviews. Is it conceivable that a man or woman could write weaker and more uncritical stuff than this? Such a being must lack, not only brains, but common feeling. But then these people do not read the books in reality; they haven't time' (unpublished letter, 7 May 1887, Berg Collection, New York Public Library).