ABSTRACT
Mr George Gissing's work has many ofthe notes which for a time gave to French Realism its vogue, and, at the last, have brought about the idealist reaction. Of course, no novel which dipped much beyond the surface of the murky stream of psycho-physiology would find a place in English circulating libraries, or in English middle-class drawingrooms; but the sordidness, the squalor, the 'dismal anarchy of life,' these one may paint, and, if the hand which lays on the colour be skilful, it wins popularity. Mr Gissing has skill, and he is becoming popular. He long ago mastered the technique of the Realist's craft. He has gone on steadily from strength to strength, and this, his latest achievement, is also his best. As an arrangement in black and grey it would be hard to beat from the point of view of artistic presentation. If life were really made up of leaden tints and sombre shadows it would leave little to be desired on the score of truth either.
