In 1868 he published "Studies in French Poetry". Three years later he began his collaboration with writer James Rice. Among their joint productions are "Ready-money Mortiboy" (1872), and "The Golden Butterfly" (1876), both, especially the latter, very successful. This association was ended by the death of Rice in 1882. Thereafter Besant continued to write voluminously by himself, his main novels being "All in a Garden Fair" (which Rudyard Kipling credited in "Something of Myself" with inspiring him to leave India and make a career as a writer, and which George Gissing read with 'extreme delight', calling it 'one of the most charming and delicate of modern novels), "Dorothy Forster" (his own favorite), "Children of Gibeon", and "All Sorts and Conditions of Men". The two last belonged to a series in which he endeavored to arouse the public conscience to the hardship among the poorest classes of cities. In this crusade Besant had considerable success, the establishment of The People's Palace in the East of London being one result. His 1889 novel "The Bell of St. Paul's" was considered by his contemporary author George Gissing to be an 'absurd and empty book'. In addition to his fiction, Besant wrote largely on the history and topography of London. His plans for this topic were left unfinished: among his books on this subject is "London in the 18th Century".