ABSTRACT
The interest of a new volume by George Gissing, The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories, is enhanced by an 'introductory survey' by Mr Thomas Seccombe, who writes with judgment and moderation and yet in a cordially appreciative spirit. Of course one finds material for disagreement, as in a passage which seems to indicate that Mr Seccombe regards The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft and the book on Dickens comparable in merit or importance, or whatever may be possible as a common denominator, with the novels of his most strenuous period. Again,- it may be that neither Mr Seccombe nor Gissing himself has done justice to The Town Traveller, which is surely far better work than Our Friend the Charlatan or Denzil Quarrier, but we may all agree that as a novelist Gissing should be judged by certain selected works, ofwhich The Nether World, New Grub Street, and In the Year ofJubilee are among the most notable. The stories in the present volume are hardly of the quality of these novels, but several of them may recall the lower and yet admirable kind of Will Warburton. Probably most of them were written in Gissing's later years, but some of them have a 'backward reach' which connects them with earlier work. They are very well written, with a fulness and simplicity of style that is characteristic ofGissing's maturity.
