Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 21278

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: Between 1 Jan 1885 and 31 Dec 1885
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, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Alfred de Musset
Title: [unknown]
Genre: Fiction, Drama, Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 21278  
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://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=21278, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)