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...