ABSTRACT
The abundance ofrecords will make the writing ofhistory an afflicting labour presently, and yet the historian must consent to the co-existence ofthe novelist and may even presume to classify him. The novel cannot be summarised, and if it be written in good faith it gives something of the form and pressure of the time. Its historical intention is at most secondary, and it may be that the work of the greatest may have less historical significance-less, at least, ofliteral truth-than that ofsmaller men. Gissing is not a small man; he is in our time a figure of singular interest, compelling in a high degree sympathy and admiration, but even his most memorable work has neither the form nor the imagination ofhis greatest contemporaries. It has peculiar force and truth and 'a remarkable personal interest. Gissing, as those who followed something of his fortunes know, had a hard life, and wrote works that reflected something of it. In such novels as The Nether World and New Grub Street, he penetrated to an expression of fortitude in poverty and privation, the force and truth of which have given him a place in English literature. Such books are representative; they make a part of the essential record of our generation.
