Two writers, one who can produce what sells and one who cannot, and the woman who married the second on the strength of his reviews. Gissing lost a brilliant academic career at eighteen for stealing to keep a prostitute he later married, and knew the reading room, the pawnshop and the three-volume deadline from the inside. The literary life has not had a more truthful account.

Two writers, one who can produce what sells and one who cannot, and the woman who married the second on the strength of his reviews. Gissing lost a brilliant academic career at eighteen for stealing to keep a prostitute he later married, and knew the reading room, the pawnshop and the three-volume deadline from the inside. The literary life has not had a more truthful account.

Two writers, one who can produce what sells and one who cannot, and the woman who married the second on the strength of his reviews. Gissing lost a brilliant academic career at eighteen for stealing to keep a prostitute he later married, and knew the reading room, the pawnshop and the three-volume deadline from the inside. The literary life has not had a more truthful account.