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 Keep the Aspidstra Flying and A Clergyman's Daughter. Even Orwell's most imaginative work Animal Farm mirrors Gissing's own novel of a failed Socialist Utopia Demos. Gissing was Orwell's role model and alter ego. Gissing provided him with a touchstone to his beliefs his pessimism his love of Dickens and cozy corners his suspicion of progress his restless sexuality. To understand Orwell fully one must first read Gissing. Language: English