works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists
of the late-Victorian era
.
Gissing was born in Wakefield
, Yorkshire, to lower-middle class parents. A brilliant student, he won a scholarship to Owens College, the present day University of Manchester
. He excelled at university, winning many coveted prizes, including the Shakespeare prize in 1875, but his academic career ended in disgrace when he fell in love with a young prostitute, Marianne Helen Harrison.
It is our duty never to speak ill of others, you know; least of all when we know that to do so will be the cause of much pain and trouble.
'A man who comes to be hanged,' pursued Jasper, impartially, 'has the satisfaction of knowing that he has brought society to its last resource.[…]
I tell you, writing is a business.
I maintain that we people of brains are justified in supplying the mob with the food it likes.
No, no; women, old or young, should never have to think about money.
The thought, however, of his girls having to work for money was so utterly repulsive to him that he could never seriously dwell upon it.
The insult was thrown out with a peculiarly reckless air; it astounded the hearer, who sat for an instant with staring eyes and lips apart; then the blood rushed to his cheeks.
How I dreaded the white page I had to foul with ink!
For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.
To be at other people's orders brings out all the bad in me.