Orwell and Gissing

Three generations of critics have commented on the parallels between George Orwell and his favorite novelist, George Gissing. -I am a great fan of his, - Orwell wrote in 1948, proclaiming -that England has produced very few better novelists.- This in-depth study reveals that Orwell drew heavily on the Gissing novels he admired in shaping his own. Gissing's "New Grub Street" and "The Odd Women" directly influenced Orwell's Depression-era novels "Keep the Aspidstra Flying" and "A Clergyman's Daughter." Even Orwell's most imaginative work, "Animal Farm," mirrors Gissing's own novel of a failed Socialist Utopia, "Demos." Gissing was Orwell's role model and alter ego. Gissing provided him with a touchstone to his beliefs, his pessimism, his love of Dickens and cozy corners, his suspicion of -progress, - his restless sexuality. To understand Orwell fully, one must first read Gissing."