George Gissing

Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, on November 22, 1857, George Gissing became one of the major English novelists of the late Victorian period. He studied at Owens College in Manchester and was recognized early for his academic talent, but his life took a difficult turn after a scandal ended his university career and pushed him into years of hardship.

Those experiences shaped his fiction. Across 23 novels, Gissing wrote with a realist's eye about the lower middle class, struggling writers, and people trapped between education, ambition, and limited means. His most admired works include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), Born in Exile (1892), and The Odd Women (1893).

Later readers have also cherished The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903), a quieter, reflective book published near the end of his life. Gissing died on December 28, 1903, in France, but his reputation endured, and he is still read for his unsentimental, deeply human picture of Victorian society.