'detailed, authoritative, compendius' The Literary Review 'This story of courage in adversity has long been known, but Coustillas tells it with unmatched authority and absorbing detail. Highly recommended.' CHOICE 'as close to an authorized biography as we shall ever get. Its deep and wide research will remain indispensable to future Gissing biographers and critics, as well as his readers, far into our twenty first century and most probably beyond.' Review 19 'Perhaps the publication of this thorough and very detailed biography ... will at last secure for its subject the the wide readership his biographer is certain he deserves.' Times Literary Supplement 'It seems safe to predict that there is very little likelihood that this exhaustive biographical account of Gissing's "middle" years will ever be superseded; all the more reason to savour and enjoy it now.' The Gissing Journal

• Chapter 1 Travels in France and Italy (September 1888-February 1889); Chapter 2 Yorkshire and the Mediterranean (March 1889-February 1890); Chapter 3 Masochism and Marriage (March 1890-February 1891); Chapter 4 Married Life in Exeter (March 1891-May 1892); Chapter 5 The Lure of London (May 1892-June 1893); Chapter 6 Brixton (June 1893-September 1894); Chapter 7 Epsom: The Unsought Conquest of Publishers and Editors (October 1894-July 1895); Chapter 8 Epsom: Short Fiction and New Troubles (July 1895-May 1896); Chapter 9 Epsom: Separation from Edith (May 1896-September 1897);