A Review of George Gissing's The Odd Women
by Katelyn E. Holland

George Gissing's The Odd Women is a fast-paced, intriguing read filled with delicious gender issues. The plot is complex and well-developed, and the characters become delightfully realistic after the first couple of chapters. The ending is disappointing, though not completely unexpected, and shouldn't altogether dissuade anyone from reading the book. I hate to see a reader's hopes dashed on the rocks of realist writing, and that's what this book is: painstakingly realist.

Gissing, a late-Victorian writer, took up the arduous task of addressing the issue of the surplus female population in England. At the time there were at least half a million more women than men in England and the burning question of the day was, "What do we do with all these extra women?" There was no making a pair of them by marriage (thus the title Odd Women, like an odd sock).

Gissing's novel begins in the country with the Madden family. Mr. Madden has six daughters and no money put aside to help them after his death. Though he means to save, he never gets around to doing so before he dies. The novel then follows the lives of three of the Madden sisters—Alice, Virginia, and Monica—and their friend Rhoda Nunn. Alice and Virginia have made their way through life as governesses and personal companions, barely subsisting and never amounting to much. Monica works as a shopgirl in London, deteriorating in health, though not in ambition. Rhoda Nunn also lives in London as an assistant to Mary Barfoot, a woman teaching girls to fend for themselves in the clerical world.

After years of separation, the Madden sisters meet with Rhoda Nunn to determine the best course of action for Monica. They decide to remove her from the shop and set her up in Mary Barfoot's school; however, Monica has other plans and allows herself to be secretly courted by an awkward gentleman she meets named Mr. Widdowson.

The crux of the novel is whether women should be married or educated, with Monica representing the former and Rhoda the latter. Monica marries Mr. Widdowson for financial security, but is unhappy in her new role. Rhoda continues her crusade for female liberation, but finds herself in love with Mr. Everard Barfoot (Mary Barfoot's rake of a cousin). To Rhoda, Everard is dangerous, and she can't ever bring herself to trust him due to his shady past.

With complex relations, deceit, sardonic humor, and a faltering feminism all his own, George Gissing drags his characters through the oftentimes grimy streets of Victorian London to illustrate the emergence of the New Woman. I give this book four odd women out of five and suggest you read it because it's so obscure, it'll be sure to impress everyone when you tell them what you are reading.

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