SOURCE: An introduction to The Day of Silence and Other Stories, edited by Pierre Coustillas, J. M. Dent, 1993, pp. xiv-xx.

In the following essay, Coustillas provides a thematic analysis of the short fiction comprising The Day of Silence and Other Stories.

Despite the considerable interest in George Gissing's life and works in the last four decades—witness the steady flow of biographies and critical studies, of new editions and translations of his novels—his short stories have received very little attention from publishers and critics. Ten years ago Robert L. Selig deplored the situation, observing that in his opinion ‘the author's short stories deserve to rank among the best of the late Victorian era’.¹ Whereas The Odd Women, his feminist novel, has been dramatized successfully and is available in three paperback editions, and New Grub Street, an acknowledged masterpiece, can be obtained from as many publishers, none of...