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 indepth study reveals that Orwell drew heavily on the Gissing novels he admired in shaping his own. Gissings New Grub Street and The Odd Women directly influenced Orwells Depressionera novels Keep the Aspidstra Flying and A Clergymans Daughter. Even Orwells most imaginative work Animal Farm mirrors Gissings own novel of a failed Socialist Utopia Demos. Gissing was Orwells 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.