Gissing produced
several early works that were to remain unpublished, however by 1879 he had
completed what was to be his first published novel Workers in the Dawn.
The novel was rejected by several publishers. In 1880 Gissing paid for its
publication himself with the proceeds of a small family inheritance. This long
novel paints a notable picture of lower-class London life as seen through the
eyes of young idealist divided between social and artistic commitments.
This letter gives some interesting insight into Gissing's very private
personality and his retrospective opinion of Workers in the Dawn. He writes:
"In reply to your request for biographical & bibliographical
information, I can only say that the details of my life have been
uninteresting... As to "Workers in the Dawn", I beg you not to
trouble about the book. It is an exceedingly crude production, & I hope
cannot easily be obtained. My work really begins with "The
Unclassed". The Unclassed was a moralising, socially reflective novel that
drew heavily on events in Gissing's own life.
In his early novels, Gissing very often draws on his
own experiences of life and poverty. In this letter to Ellen, written on his
birthday, he gives some sense of his loneliness, of his struggle as a writer
and the distance he feels from his family.
"It is all the present I desire, to hear from you & know that you
remember me sometimes, a cheering thought in the midst of this huge wilderness
of a town, where no one has any friends, & where one doesn't even know by
sight - a fact - the people who live in the same house. Struggling for a living
in London is very much like holding yourself up after a shipwreck, first by one
floating spar, & then another. You are too much taken up with the effort of
saving yourself to raise your head & look if anyone else is struggling in
the waves, &, if you do come into contact with anyone else, ten to one it
is only to fight and struggle for a piece of floating wood. For people who are
not anxious about to-morrow's dinner life in London is very fine; otherwise it
is a cruel sort of business."
By 1885, Gissing was writing professionally and had
an increasing readership. He was living comfortably for the first time in his
life. His widening social circle brought him more pupils and a long
lasting friendship with the Gaussen family of Broughton Hall. This was his
first experience of an upper class household, and one on which he drew for his
novels on middle-class life.
Isabel Clarendon, was Gissing's first published non-proletarian
novel, set amongst the upper classes, it reflected his own changing life at the
time and his early forays into London society.
His letters shed some light on his work and life at
this time. In this letter to Ellen, he speaks of his wait for news from his
publisher and of beginning work on a fourth novel, A Life's Morning.
"I have been waiting in daily expect[atio]n of news from
Chapman... I am getting most uneasy, as the time goes on' presently I shall be
out of my wits to provide cash, & that means stoppage of all work... Last
night I finished Vol. 1 of my new novel. The end of it has cost me a great deal
of labour, & I shall probably have to re-write some pages. But I must on
with Vol 2. & try to finish it by the end of this month or so. I shall then
try new publishers; Chapman seems impossible".
In 1886 Gissing published Demos (1886), the first
book to bring him any real success, and in which he returns to the depiction of
working class life, this time reflecting the turmoil of intellectual and social
life in mid Victorian Britain and also his own changing views of socialism.
This year also saw him achieve some semblance of some stability as an author
when Smith, Elder & Co. became his main publishers.
1887 saw him make a return to the proletarian novel with Thyrza (1887), his
most sympathetic portrayal of the working classes in which he addresses social
reform through mass education and democracy and The Nether World (1889), the
darkest and last of his works on London poverty.
Source: The University of Manchester