SOURCE: “Gissing and the English Novel,” in Scrutiny: A Quarterly Review, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1938, pp. 73-81.

In the following review of Stories and Sketches, Leavis discusses the biographical background to Gissing's fiction.

These stories, which mistaken piety must have induced Mr. A. C. Gissing to publish, will unfortunately persuade no one to read George Gissing who is not already interested in him. They exhibit chiefly his weaknesses and give no indication of his virtues. This is nothing like as interesting a volume of stories as the better of his other two collections, The House of Cobwebs, which ought by now to have been put into one of the pocket libraries together with the interesting long ‘Introductory Survey’ Thomas Seccombe wrote for the 1906 edition. But if this new volume had persuaded reviewers to look up Gissing's novels, re-estimate his achievement, and demand for New Grub Street recognition as...