ABSTRACT
It is almost a platitude to remark that the majority of the most popular novels of the last two decades will be forgotten in a few years. Not many writers possess that convincing mastery which converts some flimsy sheets of paper into a monument more enduring than stone or bronze. Of how many living novelists, for instance, are the works likely to survive for a generation? You may count them on the fmgers of one hand. I have been led into this train of thought by a perusal of George Gissing's The Crown of Life. I closed the book with myoId conviction confirmed and strengthened, that Gissing will be read more by the next generation than he is by this.
