Madden who has six daughters ranging from 19 to 5 years of age. The novel opens in 1872 with the family of a widowed Dr. The pessimists call them useless, lost, futile lives. So many odd women–no making a pair with them. But what happens if there is no husband–by fate or by choice? What happens to these Odd Women (and there’s a double meaning here) who remain single? Under examination is the societal expectation that women will marry and move from their father’s economic cloak of care to suitable husbands who can take over that role. Published in 1893, in late Victorian England, The Odd Womenexamines ‘The Woman Question’–the shifting roles of women in a world of social change, and given the topic, it should come as no surprise that the novel concentrates on the lives of several women who make various choices–some traditional and some courageously non-traditional. In 2012, George Gissing’s novel, New Grub Streetmade my Best-of-the-Year list, so in 2013 it was time to pick up The Odd Women, and after reading this remarkable novel which I can’t praise enough, I can easily say that George Gissing has become a new favourite author.
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