The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft

Henry Ryecroft

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft" (1903) was once the most widely-read work of the English novelist George Gissing (1857 - 1903). It was Gissing's own favorite among his works. The book appeared in the year of Gissing's death. Gissing lived a difficult life which became the basis for much of his over 20 novels. As a youth, he was expelled from an exclusive school and imprisoned for stealing to support a prostitute, with whom he subsequently made an unhappy marriage. He lived in squalor for many years in the garrets of London while writing prolifically. His early novels deal with the urban poor while the latter books include a broader spectrum of characters as Gissing's own situation improved. He writes of the commodification of art and of the difficulty of achieving personal autonomy in a commercial culture and in a state of poverty. Today, Gissing's most famous work is "New Grub Street", a pessimistic story of London literary life.

Many readers see "Ryecroft" as at least partially autobiographical. The book is cast in an unusual form. It opens with a Preface by Gissing himself ("G.G.") which gives the outline of the life of his fictional protagonist. For more twenty years, Gissing tells the reader, Ryecroft had labored in obscurity in the poor quarters of London attempting to made a living by his pen. At the age of 50, Ryecroft received an unexpected testamentary gift which enabled him to leave London and retire to a modest cottage in Exeter accompanied only by an elderly woman domestic. Ryecroft enjoyed a few years of peace and contentment in the country before dying of a heart ailment. Then, the story goes, the narrator went through Ryecroft's papers and found a diary of his observations and meditations which the narrator edited, organized, and published as Ryecroft's "Private Papers." The body of the work is organized into four chapters, titled "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter" of Ryecroft's meditations and thoughts. Each of these chapters is, in turn, organized into a number of short chapters, some interconnected and some rambling and discrete.

Ryecroft muses about his life in the country and how he has found a measure of peace at last. Although he is a different type of person in many ways, I thought of Thoreau and Walden in reading Ryecroft's fictitious diary. Both Ryecroft and Thoreau love solitude and both spend much time in long walks through the country observing flowers, rivers and meadows, and birds. Both characters, Ryecroft more than Thoreau, are highly bookish. Many of the memorable passages in Gissing's book describe his characters love for books, especially the classics and his experiences in purchasing books as a struggling writer in his garret, carrying them home, reading them and, on occasion, being forced to sell them. Ryecroft in his solitude remains enamored of his books, not only with rereading them but with their mere sight and even with their smell. Ryecroft's musings also involve, as Thoreau's do not, his life as a young writer in London. Ryecroft recalls with life of poverty, struggle, and pain, as he tried to eke out a living as a writer.

There is a great deal in Ryecroft about the hardships of poverty which sometimes imparts a materialistic cast to the work. But Ryecroft is unending in his criticism of a commercial, competitive urban society which, he believes, forces some people to live in squalor and prohibits the development of the mind and heart. When he retires to the country, Ryecroft is not wealthy. But he does have the means he finds necessary for a life of freedom and independence.

In the book, Ryecroft offers his thoughts on many subjects including England, which for all the fault he finds in it he loves dearly, class structure, democracy (which he dislikes), the United States, the rise of science, history, nature, his childhood, philosophy, his attitude towards death, books, friendship, and much else. Interestingly, there is little in the book on relations with women and on the sexuality which proved to be a source of the highest difficulty for Gissing in his own life. The meditations in the book are of a distinctly mixed quality. The sections that for me detracted markedly from the book were those at the beginning of the final "Winter" chapter in which Ryecroft talks interminably of his fondness for English beef and of the qualities of a good pat of butter. This gourmandizing is off-putting in the context of the book. Some readers also find a defensive, critical and defeated tone in Ryecroft. On the whole, I think the book tells of a successful effort to attain peace and to accept one's past.

I have returned to Ryecroft and to Gissing frequently over the years. Ryecroft remains an unusual book about a difficult character who resists easy conceptualization. On my latest reading of Ryecroft, I concluded with some reluctance that it was not the equal of the best of Gissing in books such as "New Grub Street", "Born in Exile" or "The Odd Women". I was less taken with the book in my most recent reading than when I first encountered the book years ago. Even so, the writing in the book is eloquent, ornate and most of the time moving. I enjoyed reentering Ryecroft's world, hearing his voice again, and frequently taking issue with him.