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A review by 221bees
The Odd Women by George Gissing
4.0
Bored of seeing the same novels listed on every "must-read Victorian novels" list, I searched for lists of lesser-known Victorian works and found The Odd Women by George Gissing. George Orwell called The Odd Women one of Gissing's "masterpieces." I'd honestly never heard of Gissing before. Though perhaps not as verbose or witty as other Victorian authors like Dickens or Wilde, Gissing was, as the kids say, woke. For one, this is the most feminist Victorian novel I've ever read (had to keep reminding myself this was written by a dude born in 1857). I think I'd be hard-pressed to find a Victorian novel more progressive on the subject of gender roles.
As to the title: it was purported that there were half a million more women than men in Britain at the time this was written (1893) and thus the women were unable to be paired off in marriage; many of these women were also, punnily enough, seen as strange because they were intelligent, independent, and had no choice but to be self-sustaining.
The plot follows a few characters--sisters who are left orphaned, two women fully entrenched in the "movement" (presumably that of the New Women) who run a vocational school for women, a conservative older man who believes women belong in the home, and a man who has reformed his initial narrow-minded view of women and now greatly admires/is fascinated by women with independent thought--and heavily focuses on the institution (and associated perils) of marriage and women's emancipation from it. I mean heavily. It's all anyone talks about for all ~430 pages of the novel. You'd think that'd be boring, but it was pretty interesting to read from all the different perspectives of the flawed, complex female characters (Rhoda Nunn is a standout here and I'm not sure why she isn't classed as one of the great female characters of the 19th century).
This is a novel that offers refreshingly wonderful female characters. It's also a great resource for anyone studying the first wave of feminism or interested in how Gissing's so-called "odd women" of the 1890s navigated and thrived in society.
As to the title: it was purported that there were half a million more women than men in Britain at the time this was written (1893) and thus the women were unable to be paired off in marriage; many of these women were also, punnily enough, seen as strange because they were intelligent, independent, and had no choice but to be self-sustaining.
The plot follows a few characters--sisters who are left orphaned, two women fully entrenched in the "movement" (presumably that of the New Women) who run a vocational school for women, a conservative older man who believes women belong in the home, and a man who has reformed his initial narrow-minded view of women and now greatly admires/is fascinated by women with independent thought--and heavily focuses on the institution (and associated perils) of marriage and women's emancipation from it. I mean heavily. It's all anyone talks about for all ~430 pages of the novel. You'd think that'd be boring, but it was pretty interesting to read from all the different perspectives of the flawed, complex female characters (Rhoda Nunn is a standout here and I'm not sure why she isn't classed as one of the great female characters of the 19th century).
This is a novel that offers refreshingly wonderful female characters. It's also a great resource for anyone studying the first wave of feminism or interested in how Gissing's so-called "odd women" of the 1890s navigated and thrived in society.