George Robert Gissing (22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist who achieved prominence in the late Victorian era. He published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. In the 1890s, Gissing was considered one of the greatest novelists in England, and by the 1940s, he was recognized as a literary genius. His best-known works include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), and The Odd Women (1893). Gissing retains a small but devoted following.

After losing his father at a young age, Gissing attended Owens College in Manchester. However, his studies were disrupted when he was expelled for stealing money to help a prostitute he later married. He emigrated to the United States in 1876 but returned to England in 1877, where he worked as a teacher. His literary career began in 1880, but he did not achieve success until the publication of New Grub Street in 1891, which gained critical acclaim for its portrayal of the literary and artistic world of London.

Gissing was a prolific writer, producing numerous novels, over a hundred short stories, a travel book, critical essays, and collections of correspondence. Some of his works were praised by Virginia Woolf. He is associated with the British tradition of social novels, in the vein of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. In 1898, he published Charles Dickens: A Critical Study.