House of Cobwebs and Other Stories

In these quietly devastating stories, George Gissing turns his penetrating gaze on the petty anxieties and small pretensions of English middle-class life. Here are sketches of characters caught in their own self-deceptions, their quiet vanities, their desperate attempts to maintain dignity in the face of absurdity. The collection ranges from gentle comedy to quiet tragedy, finding profound meaning in the smallest moments: a dinner party where someone's pet theory is gently demolished, a man revealed to be less important than he believes, a woman whose kindness masks a deeper self-regard. Gissing's naturalist eye records what ordinary people do to themselves and each other in the ordinary theater of daily existence. For readers who love the psychological precision of Chekhov or the social comedy of Henry James, these stories offer similar rewards in miniature form: proof that the drama of ordinary life is worthy of the closest attention.