George Gissing: A Fan's Commonplace Blog

Commonplace 199  George & The Return From Exile in America PART ONE.

With pictures from this summer's Royal Academy exhibition of David Hockney portraits.

After George set off for his year and a bit in America, it was clear he had some work to do on building bridges with his family in Wakefield. His mother was particularly affected by his fall from grace; probably the last thing Mrs Gissing was expecting from life as a widowed mother of five was that her first born would become a convicted thief and jailbird. Nothing in her life experience would have prepared her for the level of public disapprobation and shame that she must have felt.

Mr Hockney

News of the trial and conviction would not have been easy to keep within the confines of a few close Wakefield friends, family and supporters. Manchester had been rocked by George's crimes because Owens College was already considered a hotbed of sin thanks to the fact its students had no accommodation provided by the college. It was feared anarchy and licentiousness would be the outcome - after all, the students were all young and healthy, and they came from comfortable backgrounds that gave them enough money to spend on the basic requirements of life - and that, to the young, (and in the words of the Beastie Boys) means they would fight for their right to party. And it seems George did his best to live up to that creed. In fact, he rather exceeded his remit, hence the four weeks of hard labour. His old school at Alderley Edge, where his brothers William and Algernon were still boarding were up-to-date with developments and the stress caused by the scandal must have been intense. Any pride they had in George's achievements will have withered under the constant knowledge they were being judged by their brother's misdeeds. Wakefield tongues will have wagged.

George probably agreed to a period of self-exile in order to atone for his sins, but was there ever any real chance he ever intended to stay in the States? No doubt historical accounts of Charles Dickens enjoying unqualified success on book reading tours could have created the naive belief that America was culture hungry enough for any English would-be writer to rock up and wow them with his words. Dickens was famed for bringing his characters to life with his superior acting skills and ability to create a magical scene with nothing more than mood lighting and excerpts from his stories; his readings were enormously well received - much as the Divine One, Oscar Wilde's would be in the 1880s. At Owens College, George had something of a modest reputation for acting/recitals of bits of Shakespeare - a skill for showing off not usually associated with the George we all know and love. He often subjected his house guests (and sometimes, pupils) to readings of Homer and the poets he admired, whether they wanted him to or not. Maybe George thought he could make use of his performance skills and this led him to thinking he could follow in the great, deceased author's footsteps.

Barry Humphries 

There is a bit of magical thinking in the young George that he might be the natural successor to Dickens, but the potential reading public, boosted by the rise in literacy brought about by the provision of education for the masses, was enjoying reading as a more solitary pursuit. This meant they didn't need to huddle round a periodical to group-read the chapters of the latest best seller. And novels were going straight to three-parter editions available on loan from a lending library, so expensive buying of weekly or monthly magazines was reduced. A constant factor in George's magical thinking phase, not fully exorcised until his last years, was the mistaken belief that if something looks easy (as in writing internationally acclaimed and adored novels full of whimsy and pathos, drama and suspense) then a smart fellow like himself could do it, too.

Edith Devaney 

In 1876, George must have set off from Liverpool on the Parthia imagining a triumphant return to England at some not too far in the future date when he would be carrying bags of gold and trunks full of literary prizes and book deals, all underpinned by conspicuous smugness at having overcome any negative views of his decision to break the law at Owens. With determination, ability and luck, that might have happened; however, it would also require hard work and George was never really cut out for that sort of thing. Maybe he thought aptitude was enough, but, as Picasso said, inspiration will come but it has to find you working. Dickens was a prodigious worker when he had deadlines to meet - most of his work appeared in serial form, so editors and readers could not be fobbed off with excuses for lack of work turning up on a regular basis. George was more lackadaisical - and that is no bad thing. It was the immortal Douglas Adams who said: I love deadlines, I like the whooshing noise they make when as they go by.

Celia Birtwell 

When he made a reappearance on October 4th 1877, it was with his characteristic self-centred thoughtlessness. He had not informed his mother that he was returning, and he went directly from landing at Liverpool to his home in Wakefield to his unsuspecting family. In the first volume of the Pierre Coustillas biography, we have the suggestion George travelled from America under an assumed name (unless I am reading the Frenchman's English wrong), as 'Mr Kitchling' but he then adds this might have been a clerical error. Is it likely George Gissing could have boarded the ship without some form of ID, or that the name Gissing could be clerically errored into Kitchling?? Fanciful stuff. Anyhoo, there is this quoted from Alfred Gissing, George's younger son:

The family at Wakefield was surprised one evening by the delivery at the door of a note in Gissing’s writing. It turned out that in order to prepare the mind of his mother for his sudden appearance he had scribbled an explanation, and got a boy  to deliver it for him, whilst he waited at the corner of the street until the latter returned. His brother Algernon (William was away from  home at the time) and sisters, full of misgivings as to the doings of the past year or two, felt some trepidation when this messenger appeared. Gissing followed soon afterwards, but was no doubt closeted with his mother during most of the evening. And it may be as well to explain here that the latter, actuated by a mistaken sense of duty believed that it was incumbent upon her to mete out stern treatment to her defaulting son. Moreover, alarmed as she was by dreadful visions of possibility of harm done to her other children, she had made up her mind that at all costs must George be kept away from them; so that the reception of the prodigal son cannot have been an agreeable one. For his own part he was certain to have realised the utter impossibility of a temporary settlement in Wakefield, and he would therefore have been the first to suggest the propriety of his speedy departure. He spent one night in his native town, and it appears that he was given only a sofa to sleep upon – a fact much regretted in later life by his elder sister.

What did his siblings make of this reintroduction of their brother back into their lives? William was just 18 and working in a bank in another county; Margaret was 14, and along with 10 year-old Ellen, was living at home and being schooled in Wakefield. Algernon, age 17 was at school at Alderley Edge. Word about the scandal in the Gissing family will have had some impact on their lives and made locals wonder if it was a case of George being just one bad apple or if the whole crop was tainted. With their father dead, and the eldest son a proven deviant, it fell to William to attempt to guide the family and act as a role model to George. He did his best to offer support to George, but George never really valued his younger brother's advice, and most of it fell on deaf ears.

JOIN ME IN PART TWO TO EXPLORE HOW WILLIAM TRIED TO INFLUENCE HIS BIG BROTHER.