Year

2013

Text

Type

Publication

Contributors (1)

Subjects

Chronology Entries (1)

#	Year	Text	Linked Data
1	1884-1902	George Robert Gissing. Works. 1884 Gissing, George. The unclassed. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1884). Chap. V : Possibilities. "Mr. Woodstock turned away for a minute, and fingered a china ornament on the mantelpiece. He heard the sobs forcibly checked, and, when there was silence, again faced his grandchild." 1887 Gissing, George. Thyrza : a tale. (London : Smith, Elder & Co., 1887). Chap. 7 : The work in progress. "The room had formerly been used for purposes of storage by a glass and china merchant; below was the workshop of a saddler, which explained the pervading odour of leather. " 1894 Gissing, George. In the year of jubilee. (London : Lawrence and Bullen, 1894). Chap. 7. " 'By the bye, Miss. Lord, are you aware that the Chinese Empire, with four hundred MILLION inhabitants, has only ten daily papers? Positively; only ten.' " 1898 Gissing, George. The town travaller. (London : Methuen, 1898). Chap. III : The China shop. A short railway journey and another pleasant saunter brought him to a street off Battersea Park Road, and to a china shop, over which stood the name of Clover. In the window hung a card with an inscription in bold letters: "Glass, china, and every kind of fashionable ornament for the table for hire on moderate terms."… Mrs. Clover, a neat, comely, and active woman, with a complexion as clear as that of her own best china, chatted vivaciously with the visitor, whilst she superintended the unpacking of a couple of crates by a muscular youth and a young lady (to use the technical term), her shop assistant…. He did not actually desert his wife and child; at regular intervals letters and money arrived from him addressed to the care of Mrs. Clover's parents, who kept a china shop at Islington; beyond the postmarks, which indicated constant travel in England and abroad, these letters (always very affectionate) gave no information as to the writer's circumstances… To afford herself occupation Mrs. Clover went into the glass and china business, assisted by her parents' experience, and by the lively interest of her friend Mr. Gammon… He did not make straight for home, but rambled in a circuit for the next hour. When darkness had fallen he found himself again near the china shop, and paused, for a moment only, by the door. 1899 Gissing, George. The crown of life. (London : Methuen, 1899). Chap. XXIX. "It won't do. Mark my word, if we don't show more spirit, we shall be finding ourselves in Queer Street. Look at China, now! I call it a monstrous thing, perfectly monstrous, the way we're neglecting China." "My dear sir," said the other, a thin, bilious man, with an undecided manner, "we can't force our goods on a country----" "What! Why, that's exactly what we can do, and ought to do! What we always have done, and always must do, if we're going to hold our own," vociferated he of the crimson neck. "I was speaking of China, if you hadn't interrupted me. What are the Russians doing? Why, making a railway straight to China! And we look on, as if it didn't matter, when the matter is national life or death. Let me give you some figures. I know what I'm talking about. Are you aware that our trade with China amounts to only half a crown a head of the Chinese population? Half a crown! While with little Japan, our trade comes to something like eighteen shillings a head. Let me tell you that the equivalent of that in China would represent about three hundred and sixty millions per annum!" He rolled out the figures with gusto culminating in rage. His eyes glared; he snorted defiance, turning from his companion to the two strangers whom he saw seated before him." I say that it's our duty to force our trade upon China. It's for China's good--can you deny that? A huge country packed with wretched barbarians! Our trade civilises them--can you deny it? It's our duty, as the leading Power of the world! Hundreds of millions of poor miserable barbarians. And"--he shouted--"what else are the Russians, if you come to that? Can they civilise China? A filthy, ignorant nation, frozen into stupidity, and downtrodden by an Autocrat!" 1901 Gissing, George. By the Ionian sea : notes of a ramble in southern Italy. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1901). Chap. 3 : The grave of Alaric. "Pottery for commonest use among Calabrian peasants has a grace of line, a charm of colour, far beyond anything native to our most pretentious china-shops." 1902 Gissing, George. The private papers of Henry Ryecroft. (London : Archibald Constable, 1902). Chap. 4 : Winter. "Is it believable that the Chinese, in who knows how many centuries, have derived from tea a millionth part of the pleasure or the good which it has brought to England in the past one hundred years?"	Person: Gissing, George Robert