The Odd Women

The Odd Women by George Gissing, explores the idea of all the “Odd Women” of Victorian England, those women left over after all the more marriageable people have been paired off. Some of the characters – particularly Rhoda Nunn and Mary Barfoot embrace their status as single independent women and in them Gissing rather satirises the “New Women” of the 1890’s. As the novel opens in 1872 the Madden sisters are living in their Somerset home with their widowed father, their lives are quiet and seemingly idyllic. Although not hugely wealthy their father is comfortable and will be able to provide well for his daughters, although his projected fifteen more years of work is cut tragically short by his sudden death. His daughters are left to fend for themselves in the world. Fifteen years later and their fortunes are very different, the two elder sisters Alice and Virginia are in London, living in grim lodgings, in between positions as a governess and companion, their lives are hard.