Here he writes down his reflections ranging from the philosophical meaning of life to comments on simple daily life. There is much about reading, books. There are comments about nature walks in the country, memories of past events in London, visits to special places. There is discussion of English culture, customs and even of culinary arts.

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by George Gissing is part novel, part autobiography and partly a book of brief essays or reflections on various subjects. It presents a mellowed cynical author who after a difficult life spent mostly in London is given a legacy of an annual annuity which enables him to retire in solitude to a country cottage in Devon county, England. Here he writes down his reflections ranging from the philosophical meaning of life to comments on simple daily life. There is much about reading, books and authors. There are comments about nature walks in the country, memories of past events in London, visits to special places. There is discussion of English culture, customs and even of culinary arts. Gissing was not a Christian but in this book he shares a generally positive view of the influence of Christianity on England. He had in his own life also found solace in the Stoic philosophers, particularly Marcus Aurelius.

George Robert Gissing (22 November 1857—28 December 1903) was an English novelist, essayist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn in 1880. His best known novels include New Grub Street, and Born In Exile. His travel notes, By the Ionian Sea and his literature review, Charles Dickens: A Critical Study are also very famous.

In The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, Gissing reflected: "To think I once called myself a socialist, communist, anything you like of the revolutionary kind! Not for long, to be sure, and I suspect there was always something in me that scoffed when my lips uttered such things."