The Odd Women by George Gissing

The Odd Women by George Gissing

Virginia and Alice Madden are 'odd women', growing old alone in Victorian England with no prospect of finding love. Forced into poverty by the sudden death of their father, they lead lives of quiet desperation in a genteel boarding house in London. Meanwhile, their younger sister Monica, struggles to endure a loveless marriage she agreed to as her only escape from spinsterhood. But when the Maddens meet an old friend, Rhoda Nunn, they are soon made aware of the depth of their oppression. Astonishingly ahead of its time, The Odd Women is a pioneering work of early feminism. Gissing's depiction of the daring feminist Rhoda Nunn, it is an unflinching portrayal of one woman's struggle to reconcile her own desires with her deepest principles.

Gissing, George: - George Gissing (1857-1903) was an English novelist, noted for the unflinching realism of his novels about the lower middle class. Gissing was educated at Owens College, Manchester, where his academic career was brilliant until he was expelled (and briefly imprisoned) for theft. The life of near poverty and constant drudgery-writing and teaching-that he led until the mid-1880s is described in the novels New Grub Street (1891) and The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1903). Before he was 21 he conceived the ambition of writing a long series of novels, somewhat in the manner of Balzac, whom he admired. The first of these, Workers in the Dawn, appeared in 1880, to be followed by 21 others. Between 1886 and 1895 he published one or more novels every year. He also wrote Charles Dickens: A Critical Study (1898), a perceptive piece of literary criticism. His work is serious-though not without a good deal of comic observation-and scrupulously honest. On the social position and psychology of women he is particularly acute: The Odd Women (1893) is a powerful study of female frustration. Gissing was deeply critical, in an almost wholly negative way, of contemporary society.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780140433791
ISBN 10	0140433791
Title	The Odd Women
Author	George Gissing
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	1994-06-30
Number of pages	416
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable