Readers may dislike his technique, perspective, or message but will inevitably find themselves provoked out of any complacency they may bring to questions concerning social class, gender roles, and the moral nature of man.
Gissing well recognized the limitations of much of the short fiction that he wrote throughout his career in order to augment his income. In 1889 he replied to his brother Algernon's appeal for advice on fiction writing, saying that he found short stories "exceedingly difficult" and concluding bluntly, "I myself cannot write them." In 1895 he mentioned in his diary that he considered short-story writing "a great trial," and in 1898 he admitted in a letter to a friend that he had a "poor opinion" of his short fiction. Many contemporary critics shared that view. After the publication of his first collection of stories and sketches, Human Odds and Ends (1898), the reviews were generally unfavorable, with the London Times (14 February 1898) summing up the common reaction to the intense gloom of Gissing's tales:
He looks at life through tinted spectacles from which every touch of rose-colour has been carefully excluded; all the world is drab to him, save for a black spot or two where wretchedness has led to crime.
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