Commonplace 133 George & Role Models. PART ONE.
One of the many enigmas of George Gissing is that though he mixed occasionally with fairly left wing revolutionary figures, none of the belief that things had to change in favour of democracy rubbed off on him. In fact, as the modern Conservatives and Neocons know (see Commonplace 121) his political trajectory was unremittingly downhill towards the right wing. Why is this? Was it the throwback thinking of one out of step with his times who couldn't square the circle of modern life, and so scurried back to ancient despotic regimes - the Romans - for his moral compass? Or was it something more personal? Was the experience of being a convicted thief who had served time such a personal burden to carry, and did it afflict him like stigmata marking him out to himself as inferior, when he compared himself to the people he wanted to impress? Was that few weeks in prison enough to reduce him to a craven heap who had to out-conservative the conservatives in order to prove his worth to them? Or to himself? Hmm.
George's father proved himself a liberal with strong sympathy for the disadvantaged. Politics gave Mr Gissing Snr a platform to demonstrate his concern for disadvantaged women - girls who had fallen through the cracks because they lacked support systems. Perhaps George arrived in Manchester fired with liberal zeal to do good, but it soon waned and dribbled away. Some do-gooders expect gratitude and recognition for their good deeds. Maybe if George crowed about his social work people might ask awkward questions about how he was funding his philanthropy. Perhaps it had all been guilt at his father's death that led him to want to carry on the good work in his father's footsteps. The legend has it that he only broke the law to help someone in want, which is a massive rationalization: getting a job and earning the same trifling amount that he stole was a viable option to one brimming over with energy and capability. Maybe he thought the class he aspired to join settled their financial problems by stealing from others? Maybe they do haha. Still, the greatest 'sin' he committed was getting caught... according to those who choose to let him off the hook and blame Marianne aka Nell for his crime spree. That's spree - he stole many times, and it wasn't just money.
Apart from his father, who were the other good influences he might have chosen as role models but didn't, but was able to make some use of?
Manchester, where George went to study in preparation for an academic life, was already famed for its links to political thought. In George's time, you couldn't throw a stick without hitting someone with a revolutionary bent in Manchester, that hotbed of left wing political activism. It had been on the cutting edge of the Rise of Demos for over a hundred years click. Fred Engels had lived and worked in Manchester; the Co-operative movement was started here; the Unitarian Movement was formed in Manchester, and the infamy of the Peterloo Massacre click helped ensure the city and Political Activism would be forever united. Hell, on the road where George once lived there is even a bar called Revolution, so maybe things haven't changed. George's general practitioner, Adolphe Wahltuch, whose practice was just up the road from George's Oxford Road digs, and who probably treated George for syphilis, was a famous dissenter and rebel. Here is his 1907 obituary, so you will see how he was a quietly revolutionary figure who did not let adversity warp his dedication to making a difference to his community:
After prison, George was offered the support of well-wishers - both friends of the family and Manchester people who sympathised with his plight - to start afresh in a new country: America. Boston was to be his destination. It was considered the most civilized city in the US, so he was off to a good start in a place where his natural interests might be appreciated and developed. HG Wells, who got to know George reasonably well, claimed George actually thought up the scheme himself, and volunteered to go, always intending to make it a flying visit. As George always had an inflated opinion of his own capacity to outdo his peers, he may well have thought he could make a killing either financially or in terms of fame, and return from the States in triumph as a total success, his failure at Owens College behind him and his decision to move towards criminal activity vindicated.
It was in Boston that he came under the influence of William Lloyd Garrison. Being under Garrison's wing would have been a great opportunity to study politics. He joined the anti-slavery movement when he was 25, and went on to become a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. After success in that cause, Garrison moved on to the cause of the suffragists. He is also remembered as a celebrated newspaper man, being the editor of pro-abolitionist The Liberator. His anti-slavery stance often brought him close to personal danger, and accusations that he was a traitor. In 1877, Garrison visited England for the last time; George came back from America late that summer, never to set foot across the pond again.
Through Garrison, George met Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, a physician specialising in paediatric and women's health, at a time when female doctors were rarities, and women's and children's health was not seen as something in need of a specialism. This interesting website click gives an impression of a woman who marched to the beat of her own drum, a pioneer of feminism who was intellectually far superior to most of the men she met, George included. Her grave marker states: Skilful and humane physician. Founder of the New Hampshire Hospital For Women and Children. What a gal.
According to the Heroic Life Volume One, she ran something of a salon with many intellectuals in attendance and George enjoyed himself in this small group, no doubt flagged as the celebrated academic from Manchester, which may or may not have been a good thing - meeting anyone who had intel on his life of crime would have been embarrassing - and who is to say this didn't happen, because something sent him fleeing off from Waltham (See Commonplace 77).
It might be argued that, in relation to these people who made such an impact on their times and who worked for the greater good, the paltry work of a middle-brow English writer seems to pale into insignificance. After all, George had showed such promise both at school and at Owens College, enough for Great Things to be expected of him. What George lacked was commitment - to a cause, an ideal, to the wonder of life in all its infinitely perverse varieties. Should we blame it on the Pessimists, or was George always going to be a fence-sitter? It seems such a waste of potential. However, that is the Joy of George - he speaks for the fence-sitting, pessimistic, non-joiner in who can't summon up enough gumption to follow a cause because he has faith in nothing, not even his own abilities, and wouldn't waste his time on following anyone who might have helped him out of his moral ambiguity.
It was through Ms Zakrzewska that George met another activist, Karl Heinzen, a man so stuffed full of commitment and enthusiasm for change, the write ups couldn't possibly do him justice click. However, not all of George's associates were the sort of role model to be followed. Perhaps some of George's fence-sitting was down to mixing with the likes of Heinzen.
JOIN ME IN PART TWO TO TAKE A SQUINT AT HEINZEN'S MISGUIDED THOUGHTS ON THE REVOLUTION, AND WHAT HE THOUGHT WOMEN NEEDED. THAT'S RIGHT; ANOTHER MAN TELLING US WHAT WE NEED.
One of the many enigmas of George Gissing is that though he mixed occasionally with fairly left wing revolutionary figures, none of the belief that things had to change in favour of democracy rubbed off on him. In fact, as the modern Conservatives and Neocons know (see Commonplace 121) his political trajectory was unremittingly downhill towards the right wing. Why is this? Was it the throwback thinking of one out of step with his times who couldn't square the circle of modern life, and so scurried back to ancient despotic regimes - the Romans - for his moral compass? Or was it something more personal? Was the experience of being a convicted thief who had served time such a personal burden to carry, and did it afflict him like stigmata marking him out to himself as inferior, when he compared himself to the people he wanted to impress? Was that few weeks in prison enough to reduce him to a craven heap who had to out-conservative the conservatives in order to prove his worth to them? Or to himself? Hmm.
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| A George lookalike?? |
Apart from his father, who were the other good influences he might have chosen as role models but didn't, but was able to make some use of?
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| Proposed Monument to the Peterloo fallen designed by Artist and Satirist George Cruikshank (1792-1878) - it's weird to think he was alive the same time as George. click for more. |
After prison, George was offered the support of well-wishers - both friends of the family and Manchester people who sympathised with his plight - to start afresh in a new country: America. Boston was to be his destination. It was considered the most civilized city in the US, so he was off to a good start in a place where his natural interests might be appreciated and developed. HG Wells, who got to know George reasonably well, claimed George actually thought up the scheme himself, and volunteered to go, always intending to make it a flying visit. As George always had an inflated opinion of his own capacity to outdo his peers, he may well have thought he could make a killing either financially or in terms of fame, and return from the States in triumph as a total success, his failure at Owens College behind him and his decision to move towards criminal activity vindicated.
 |
| Published in Massachusetts c 1850 |
Through Garrison, George met Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, a physician specialising in paediatric and women's health, at a time when female doctors were rarities, and women's and children's health was not seen as something in need of a specialism. This interesting website click gives an impression of a woman who marched to the beat of her own drum, a pioneer of feminism who was intellectually far superior to most of the men she met, George included. Her grave marker states: Skilful and humane physician. Founder of the New Hampshire Hospital For Women and Children. What a gal.
According to the Heroic Life Volume One, she ran something of a salon with many intellectuals in attendance and George enjoyed himself in this small group, no doubt flagged as the celebrated academic from Manchester, which may or may not have been a good thing - meeting anyone who had intel on his life of crime would have been embarrassing - and who is to say this didn't happen, because something sent him fleeing off from Waltham (See Commonplace 77).
It might be argued that, in relation to these people who made such an impact on their times and who worked for the greater good, the paltry work of a middle-brow English writer seems to pale into insignificance. After all, George had showed such promise both at school and at Owens College, enough for Great Things to be expected of him. What George lacked was commitment - to a cause, an ideal, to the wonder of life in all its infinitely perverse varieties. Should we blame it on the Pessimists, or was George always going to be a fence-sitter? It seems such a waste of potential. However, that is the Joy of George - he speaks for the fence-sitting, pessimistic, non-joiner in who can't summon up enough gumption to follow a cause because he has faith in nothing, not even his own abilities, and wouldn't waste his time on following anyone who might have helped him out of his moral ambiguity.
It was through Ms Zakrzewska that George met another activist, Karl Heinzen, a man so stuffed full of commitment and enthusiasm for change, the write ups couldn't possibly do him justice click. However, not all of George's associates were the sort of role model to be followed. Perhaps some of George's fence-sitting was down to mixing with the likes of Heinzen.
JOIN ME IN PART TWO TO TAKE A SQUINT AT HEINZEN'S MISGUIDED THOUGHTS ON THE REVOLUTION, AND WHAT HE THOUGHT WOMEN NEEDED. THAT'S RIGHT; ANOTHER MAN TELLING US WHAT WE NEED.
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