SOURCE: “Evidence of a Dickensian Gissing in ‘Joseph Yates' Temptation’,” in English Language Notes,Vol. XXVI, No. 3, March, 1989, pp. 82-7.

In the following essay, Lefew traces the influence of Charles Dickens on Gissing as demonstrated in “Joseph Yates' Temptation.”

Seven years after the death of Charles Dickens, George Robert Gissing found himself penniless and starving in Chicago, Illinois, having left his native England following a brief imprisonment for stealing money to support his prostitute-lover, Marianne Helen (“Nell”) Harrison. During his visit to the American midwest, Gissing wrote several short stories and sold them to various Chicago publications.¹ The process of discovering and identifying these obscure tales has received considerable attention. The stories themselves, however, are largely ignored.² To date, only two editions of these stories exist, and neither is comprehensive. Sins of the Father and Brownie preserve Gissing's early tales, but neither work offers any criticism or commentary...