Record Number: 21280

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'In the late 1880s Gissing immersed himself in contemporary European fiction, as he had during previous periods of his life. Gissing's wide reading has been often noted but rarely assessed. Salient in any study of it would be his reading of Goethe and Heine in 1876 (and throughout his life), Eugene Sue and Henri Murger (in 1878 "Scenes de la Vie Boheme" was deepy influential), Comte (notably "Cours de Philosophie Positive" in 1878), Turgenev (in 1884 - but also constantly, for by the end of the decade he had read "Fathers and Sons" five times), Moliere, George Sand, Balzac, de Musset (whom he called indispensable" in 1885), Ibsen (in German, in the late 1880s), Zola, Dostoevski, the Goncourts (at least by the early 1890s). Gissing read with equal ease in French, German, Greek and latin, and these from an early age. Later he added Italian and late in life some Spanish'.

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

From: 1 Jan 1880

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: probably London

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

George Gissing

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

22 Nov 1857

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

author

Religion:

none

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Emile Zola

Title:

[unknown]

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

21280

Source:

Print

Author:

Michael Collie

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Alien Art. A Critical Study of George Gissing's Novels

Place of Publication:

Folkestone

Date of Publication:

1979

Vol:

n/a

Page:

9

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Michael Collie, The Alien Art. A Critical Study of George Gissing's Novels, (Folkestone, 1979), p. 9, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=21280, accessed: 25 November 2024

---

Additional Comments:

None